I'll Protect You from Nightmares: Never Alone
by Jadesfire2
Summary: rocketshippy & slightly twerpshippy fic. the group comes to an island where somebody is playing around with mind controll- A spirit who desperately wants a body is after everyone, using her ability to manipulate their dreams, and trap them in nightmares
1. illusions and voices

I'll Protect You from Nightmares: You're Never Alone  
By Jadesfire2  
Summary: TR (rocketshippy! Most definitely! It's mostly a R-shipper story. There's a little Twerpshippyness in here-yuck-but it was important to the plot) TR, and Ash-tachi find themselves on an island where people with sensitive minds start to hallucinate, and believe they are reliving the worst part of their lives. Unaware of this, OUR heroes, and the twerps, are soon finding that members of their group are starting to act a little strange...   
Please read and review, this is my third fan fic, (second on FF.net) and my previous fic, I'll Follow You, was well received so I hope you all enjoy this as well.   
A HUGE thanks to Dorothy, Anna, Allie, and everyone else who reviewed my last story.   
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Chapter 1: Dream-Sphere  
  
"Wow! Look at that!" Jessie pointed. James stared in the direction of her outstretched hand and looked. They had been following the twerps until they reached the seashore. Then those brats had heard about a famous Pokemon scientist that lived on the island about ten miles off shore. So he, Jessie, and Meowth naturally followed, hoping to catch that electric rodent, Pikachu. And they were now on top of their Magikarp sub, trying to see Ash-tachi's little paddleboat.  
James saw at once what his partner was pointing to. It wasn't your average island. It was HUGE. You could see the green plateaus overlooking the sheer cliffs rising from the water. There was a huge mountain in the center and at it's peak was covered with snow. "What a view! I wish we could take a vacation instead of trying to capture Pikachu today. That looks like the perfect spot to rest." He expected Jessie to hit him for that-she took her job seriously, well, most of the time-but instead she nodded.  
"I think we could all use a break, don't you think so Meowth?" Meowth looked up from the map and quick as lightening, fury swiped them both.   
"While you`s two`s got your heads in the clouds, Meowth's doing something productive wid' his time!" He settled back down. Jessie kicked him into the water while James tried to rescue the map from falling off the top off the sub, along with Meowth.   
"Well I suppose he's got a point," Jessie regretfully admitted, "We really don't have time for a break-not while the Boss is mad at us." James slumped down,   
"If we don't catch pikachu, we'll have a permanent vacation!" he said mournfully.  
"Come on," Meowth said, climbing back up onto the Metal-Magikarp, "Let's take Pikachu, then take a well deserved break!"  
  
Meanwhile...  
  
"Ash, we are heading way too much too the right," Misty yelled down from the roof of the paddleboat, "the one place you can land on this whole stinking island is two miles that way. Only you could get us off course when the place is smack dab in front of us!"  
"Pika Pika." The yellow rodent agreed.  
"Well you can't complain!" snapped Ash, panting as he peddled, "You aren't doing any of the work!"   
"Yeah!" Brock agreed, gritting his teeth as he pushed down on the pedals.  
"Well it's not my fault that there are only two sets of pedals," Misty chirped back. She sat contented on the roof of the boat with Pikachu on her shoulder and Togepi on her lap.  
"Hey!" Brock shouted, pointing straight ahead, "Beautiful girl at twelve o clock!"  
"Where?" Ash was looking more at eight o clock.  
"Straight ahead!" Brock, whose eyes ironically only open when they turn into hearts, had stopped pedaling and was gawking at the girl who was quickly approaching on a Dewgong's back.   
She wasn't a beauty queen. She was only a tad more than plain, but Brock will fall for any skinny form of estrogen. She was wearing a red and black striped wetsuit and her brown hair was flailing freely in the wind. The dewgong and rider came up to them quickly and soon Ash and co. found them selves face to face with the girl.  
"You visiting Dream-Sphere?" She demanded, staring intently at them with large hazel eyes.  
"Uh...Dream-Sphere?" Ash inquired, not sure how to answer.  
"The island-Dream-Sphere-that where your goin'?" She replied.  
"Yeah, that's where we're headed, why?" Misty told asked.  
"Then you'll be coming with me. All visitors must have an escort-it's the rules." The girl said. She extended a gloved hand, "I'm Dr. Kakumei."  
"Your Dr. Kakumei?" Ash asked dumbfounded, "we were coming to the island to meet you, but I sorta expected someone older." Ash admitted sheepishly.  
"I'm fifteen."  
"That's Great!" Brock yelled, jumping over Ash, rocking the boat, and vigorously shaking the girl's hand, "You're my age, and more importantly, my TYPE! I'm Brock by the way and I must say I admire your research in Pokemon psychology almost as much as I admire your beauty! Maybe we could get together sometime, you know I study Pokemon too--" he was cut off by Ash who introduced himself and Misty and the group went on their way to the shore.  
  
  
  
"Do you see them?" Meowth asked from his back seat in the sub. Jessie nodded, and pushed the periscope out of her way.  
"I saw them, they're headed too the island along with some other kid, who I could only see the back of her head," she informed them. They all started pedaling after the twerps.  
  
  
  
"So Dr, --" Brock began, "What about pokemon do you study? I know you're into pokemon psychology, but what field?"  
Kakumei looked up, "Well right now I'm looking at Pokemon's connection with nature. They seem to have a sixth sense--" she was cut off by Ash.  
"POKEMON SEE DEAD PEOPLE???" everyone stopped to stare at him, all thinking the same thing-mental institution.  
"Uhhhhh.......No. I was talking about the Pokemon's link with all living things. Do you remember that big upset in the Orange Islands a while back? Rare birds attacking, the weather being totally messed up, remember that?"  
Ash-tachi all nodded. They remembered.  
"Well did you see all them pokemon on the news? They were all headed for that battle with those birds. They were pokemon from all over the world. They sensed that misbalance of nature long before anything really happened. The Pokemon intuition. I'm studying that."  
The group was impressed. But Misty had a question, "Why do all visitors need chaperones? We wouldn't do anything bad, do you have a lot of top secret stuff of something?"   
"Yes, we have a lot of top secret things here, but they are well out of reach. All visitors need an escort who has lived on the island for over two years. That's the rules here."  
"Why?"  
Kakumei explained, "Well the other thing I'm studying right now is this island itself. Something on it, or something about it, makes some people start hallucinating. Some people have a heightened sensitivity to the part of the brain that develops telechenitic powers. That part of the brain is usually dormant, however some people-though they probably aren't psychic-have very sensitive nerves in that part of the brain. They start hallucinating, living in a dream world. It's like they're sleepwalking. That's why you need an escort. I've lived here for a while and my brain has developed partial immunity-you can never be fully immune-and if any one of you starts to see things that aren't there I gotta keep you under control."  
"Wow, that sounds kind of dangerous, why aren't we seeing things now?" Misty asked.  
"Because you've only been here for about a half hour. We'll see how sensitive you are in an hour or two, but right now you're ok."  
"Well!" Brock exclaimed, grasping Kakumei's hands, "I think that it's quite fascinating and in my dreams you would give me your phone number! How about making my dream come true and-ow! Ok, ok! I'll stop-ouch!" Misty had grabbed Brock's ear and was yanking him away.  
Ash turned back to Kakumei, "It wouldn't be so bad to live in a dream world, but I'd rather become a pokemon master for real."  
"No, no, no," she insisted, "Ya got it wrong kid. I'm not talking about your fantasies. For some reason, whatever-it-is is only showing you the bad stuff: nightmares, worst memories, greatest fears, stuff like that. It usually starts out with people reliving their worst memories, and it goes on from there, until they go crazy. That's why you need supervision. There's a treatment-I'm taking you to the infirmary now-that helps you process the hallucinations, but if it doesn't work I'll get you off the island right away. You have got to be careful, this island is literally your worst nightmare."  
  
  
  
"Are you sure you're ok?" he asked her for the fiftieth time; James knew she wasn't and wouldn't admit it of course.  
"I'm fine. for the last time James I'm ok." Jessie answered him. She wasn't really paying attention. She was staring every which way-as if she thought they were being followed.  
"Well then, what are you looking for?" he asked. He looked down and saw that Meowth was looking around too. They would walk for a minute or two, and then he and Jessie would stop and ask James if he had heard anything. He hadn't.  
"James have you ever had the feeling you're chasing shadows?" Jessie inquired of him.   
"Huh?" he asked, not really seeing her point.   
"It's just ya thinks you hear somethin' or see somethin' but when you turns around dere ain't nothin dere," Meowth informed him, and Jesse nodded in confirmation.   
James looked around. There was certainly nothing out of the ordinary that he could see. There were trees, the ocean could be seen behind them, there was that mountain in the distance, and not too far away was the small settlement for the scientist and other people who worked on this island. It wasn't the most residential place. The only thing out of the ordinary was the fact that he had seen no wild pokemon at all. But that wasn't the point. After they robbed the research center they would either make a quick getaway or get blasted off. He just wanted to get off this island.  
He wanted his friends back to normal. They hadn't started out like this, but it had come gradually since they had arrived and he didn't like it. James wanted them back to their usual selves-even if Jessie and Meowth could be mean like that-he liked his best friends just the way they were.  
Especially Jessie. He had grown to love her strong and confident attitude; in fact, he had come to rely on it. Whenever he wasn't feeling good about something, Jessie-and sometimes Meowth-wouldn't let him wreck their spirits. No matter how many times they failed, Jessie's strength seemed to assure him that someday they would be happy. All people deserve to be happy don't they? And he was happy with Jessie. His Jessie. His strong, confident Jessie. Not this paranoid person, acting like a child afraid of a monster in the closet.   
He wanted to find whatever had changed her mood and thrash it into next week for messing with her. He wanted to hug her and make her feel better, until she was once again the happy girl he'd come to love.  
'All she needs is a good rest' he kept repeating to himself over and over in his mind, 'the cat too,' James thought. "I think we should set up camp, and attack the place tomorrow," he said.  
The other two just nodded and they plopped their stuff down on the ground, still distracted by these unseen things.   
  
James stared at her. It had taken forever for her to fall asleep, poor Jessie, she usually slept like a log. She was obviously having a nightmare. Jessie often had bad nightmares, and would wake up screaming and gasping for air, waking him and Meowth up. Whenever she was having a nightmare, and James was awake he would usually wake her up before the dream got worse. She would hit him if he interrupted a good sleep, but she was always relieved to be woken from a bad dream. He would have woken her up now too, however her paranoia had gotten far worse, and he wasn't sure if it was better to just let her sleep.  
Meowth was having a nightmare too, and he hadn't acted any better than Jessie had before going to sleep.  
James looked at his sleeping partner. The island was humid, but she was curled up in her sleeping bag, as if it would shield her from something. He wanted to hold her, and make her feel safe. He wanted to protect her from those shadows of her dreams. But even thought she was right there, the Jessie he loved seemed far away. James knew he would do anything to her back.  
  
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!"   
"What's going on?" Ash demanded. He saw Misty sitting up straight in bed, panting and sweating, and grabbing the sheets with clenched fists. "Misty, are you alright?"  
"Yeah...I-I'm fine, just a bad dream," Misty said shakily. 'It was just a nightmare,' she thought, 'everyone has nightmares; it's nothing to do with this island. I had that medicine earlier today, and I haven't been seeing things. It was just a bad dream...' somehow though, she really didn't believe that.  
  
  
"Sleep well?" Kakumei inquired of them when they arrived in the dining room of her house/research center.   
Ash was already inhaling his breakfast, "Yeah I slept ok, had a bad dream though."  
Brock nodded, "Me too,"  
Misty was glad but also worried that she hadn't been the only one, "I had a really bad nightmare," she said shyly.   
Kakumei only seemed half interested, downing her plain white rice like there was no tomorrow. "That's normal," she said with her mouth full, "like I said, no one can be completely immune to the neurological affects of this place. It's if you start hearing or seeing things when you know you've got hyper-sensitivity to it."  
  
"It was someone screaming! I'm telling you I heard it!" Jessie yelled, facing off with Meowth.  
"It wadn't screamin'! It was a Pokemon roarin or attackin or somethin'. Meowth knows what he heard!" Meowth yelled back at her.  
James wasn't sure how to react; he hadn't heard a thing. Well, he had thought he had heard something, but he had dismissed it. It had been like the far off sound of whip cracking, but he ignored it. He had his friends to worry about.   
  
  
Misty wanted to leave; she wanted to leave right now. They were walking off to Dr. Kakumei's research center for a tour, but all these bug type pokemon along the path were really scaring her. She thought about asking if they could take a different route but then Ash asked, "Why haven't we seen any wild Pokemon here?"  
"There aren't any wild ones on the whole island. If they were ever here, they're long gone." Kakumei replied. "I do my research with the pokemon I caught, or that have been brought to the island."  
Misty froze. She looked around; there were weedle, metapod, and all sorts of bug types everywhere. Didn't they see them? No. She was the only one who saw these things. The island was showing her her fears.  
"Dr. Kakumei, I think I'd better lea--" she was cut off by the sound of someone screaming not too far away.   
"Someone's in trouble!" Ash shouted, running towards the sound.  
"Don't worry Kakumei! I'll protect you!" Brock called, but she had leapt off at a dead run. She had passed up Ash and disappeared into the undergrowth-that girl was fast! The rest of the party followed behind.  
  
"I thought you were dead!!!!" Jessie shouted at the thin air. James had decided that people shouldn't loose their minds this fast-something was up. Meanwhile Meowth was pouncing and scratching at an invisible enemy. He didn't know what to do.   
"Jessie there's nothing there!" he shouted. She didn't hear.   
"Does Giovanni know you're still alive? I'll bet that you're still running the company-that you're just giving the 'boss' instructions" she continued.  
"What's going on here?" a voice demanded. James looked over to see a short brunette with hazel eyes and wearing an open lab coat over her black pants and red shirt.  
She stared at him intently but he soon lost her interest as she looked from Jessie to Meowth, and back to Jessie, then back to him. "You know THAT's the reason you're required to have a supervisor on this island."  
"You mean the island is doing this to them?" James demanded.  
She nodded. Suddenly there were three familiar figures on the scene. Two of them yelled, "It's Team Rocket!" The other one screamed,  
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!! A SCYTHER!!!! GET IT AWAY! HELP! HELP!"  
The girl in the lab coat, as well as the two male twerps turned to stare at her,  
"Oh no, you too?" the girl asked Misty, who was backed against a tree screaming. "Alright," the girl continued, "Anyone who isn't seeing stuff hold your breath!" she ordered, and threw a pokeball. James, Ash, and Brock held their breath as the Butterfree that appeared spread it's sleep powder, and Misty and Jessie fell to the ground.  
  
  
They were both on hospital beds. Often one would give a yell in her sleep, and they both tossed and turned restlessly. Kakumei monitored them from a computer console in the corner of the small room of the island's pathetic excuse for an infirmary.   
"So when will they wake up?" Ash asked, staring at sleeping-Misty.   
Kakumei didn't look up from her quick typing, "They wont. Even if they wake up physically, they'll still believe that they are where the hallucinations take them. It will be like they're sleep walking."  
Ash didn't move. From beside Jessie's bed, James asked, "So how do we stop this? Can we wake them up? I mean really wake them?" there was a definite tone of worry in his voice. Jessie moaned again and James stroked her hair while Meowth pulled the covers tightly over her.  
"Well they usually turn back to normal when you get them far enough away from the island. I can't seem to figure out why the neural suppresser didn't work, so we'd better get them outta her--" she was cut off by Jessie, who screamed, jolted up and opened her eyes.   
"Jessie!" James and Meowth exclaimed happily. But then they remembered what Kakumei had just said.   
"Where am I?" Jessie demanded. Her voice was small, like a child's, and her blue eyes were fogged and didn't seem to see. "Where's Momma?" she turned to James, "Where's my mother?" she demanded again, on the verge of tears.  
James didn't know what to tell her. Jessie almost never spoke about her past. He had no idea where to find her mother-what could he tell Jessie? "It's best," Kakumei said from her respective corner, "To play along. If she gets too riled up, it could be hazardous to her health." James considered this. He didn't want Jessie to be hurt.  
Her eyes, though fogged, were wild and childlike. And she stared up at him with those eyes full of tears, "They say she's dead, don't you say it too! She's not dead! She's lost! If you go and find her... you got to find her! She's not dead, you'll see! Please just go and get her..." Jessie was growing exhausted and finally plopped down on her pillow, "Where's momma?" she started again.  
James sighed; he couldn't lie to her, "I don't know."  
"I need momma! Where is she?" she tried to sit up again but she was too weak.  
A thought struck James, "How old are you?"  
"Five." No wonder she wants her mother.  
"I don't know where she is, but if I see her I'll tell her to come here, ok?" she stared at him for a bit.   
"She's in the Andes. She wont answer any transmissions...but that's just cause she doesn't want to get fired...for taking so long to find Mew," she was drifting off to sleep again, "but...but...if you tell her...tell here that I need her...than she'll come home, I know she will...she will..." she was asleep.  
  
Ash stared at James. He left the room without a word, and Meowth padded after him. For a few seconds the room was quiet until Kakumei spoke.  
"I'll call for a truck. That'll get us two the harbor. I'll make sure a boat's ready to sail as soon as we arrive. A mile away from here should bring them back." She left the room as well.  
Ash stared at Misty. She was tossing in her sleep, but she had been quieter than Jessie so far. But maybe Jessie was worse. Maybe Misty would act like that too...he shuddered, not wanting to think about the woman in the next bed who thought she was a child, nor did he want to think about the look on James's face as he left the room. Sad eyes...  
"Pika-pi..." Pikachu said softly from his shoulder, but the pokemon could not offer it's usual comfort to it's worried trainer.  
"You know what?" Brock had been so quiet, Ash had forgotten he was there and the voice startled him.  
"What is it Brock?"  
"I think," he looked at Misty, "That we've been taking some things for granted," he glanced at Jessie, then Misty again, and turned to leave, "And when I say we, I mean all of us," the door clicked softly behind him, and Ash was alone.  
  
"So...this is an interestin' turn of events," Meowth said, trying to make conversation. James didn't seem to hear. For once he seemed to be deep in thought. "Look, Jimmy," he started off carefully; James didn't look up, but Meowth knew he had heard him that time, "Meowth knows your worried `bout her," James looked up, "But there aint nothin' we can do."  
"That's just it!" Meowth jumped back. He hadn't expected James to yell. "There's nothing we could have done, and there's nothing we can do now. Nothing. She's always calling me useless, and she's right! I should have done something, but there's nothing I could have done and now she's in trouble and I can't help her." Meowth stared at James.   
"Meowth know Jess didn't mean you was useless," the cat began. As he opened his mouth to speak again, the room seemed to get foggy. That was weird. Far off in the distance, but coming closer, was the sound of waves breaking against the beach. The fog around him intensified, and James was getting harder and harder to see. Meowth couldn't think straight. All he could hear was a voice far off,  
"You are alone. Come to me and you will suffer no more...come...you will never be alone again...come..."  
Meowth shook his head violently. He knew he couldn't hold on to his thoughts for very much longer. "JAMES!" He yelled. He couldn't see his friend, but what was left of his conciseness told him that James was still there, "You aint useless, and you're gonna have to prove it...."   
  
"Meowth? Meowth!" No use. The cat couldn't hear him. James felt guilty, that in his worry about Jessie he had forgotten that Meowth had been seeing things as well.   
"Meeeooow!, Meow Morrow." Meowth whined desperately from the floor. He didn't seem to see anything. The cat walked a few paces to the left, then to the right, before settling on a path to the door.  
"Meowth, you too..." James murmured. Meowth, of course, didn't hear. "HOW COULD YOU DO THIS?" James yelled; he could hear the desperation in his own voice. "How could you leave me alone?" and then he heard two things.  
One was the cracking noise. It was closer than last time. The other was what Meowth had said, "you're gonna have to prove it..." Meowth's right. Although the words "Meowth" and "right" didn't seem to belong in the same sentence, it was true. His friends needed him now, and he wouldn't let them down.  
James ran out the door, and picked up Meowth who had been slowly making his way down the hall. He took the pokemon back to the patient's room. Ash was dozing in a chair by Misty's bed with Pikachu in his lap. Misty was asleep, but panting and sweating hard. She had thrown off the covers in her sleep, as appose to Jessie who was violently shaking under the covers.   
James saw the Buterfree perched on an IV pole, and motioned for it to use sleep powder on Meowth. After the pokemon was asleep, James gently lifted the covers of Jessie's bed a little, so her head could be seen.   
"Did you find Momma?" she asked softly. Her scared voice made James' heart break. He had thought she was asleep.  
"No, I'm sorry. I'll keep looking." He told her.  
Her foggy eyes seemed to glaze over, "She's dead isn't she?" she asked matter-o-factly.  
"I don't kno--"  
"She's dead. She's dead! She was right. I am alone. I'm alone..." she was starting to fall back asleep, though tears spilled down her cheeks. He hated to see her like this.   
"You're not alone. I'm here."  
"Who are you?" Even though she thought she was five, that question still hurt him to hear.  
"My name is James. I'm a friend."  
"James..." she repeated. For a moment, it looked like she was asleep, but those foggy eyes opened again to stare into his own eyes. "But...you're going away aren't you?"  
"Only for a little bit, then I'll be right back here. In the meantime," he placed the sleeping Meowth in her lap, "Meowth will stay with you." He really didn't want to leave her, but he needed some questions answered.   
Jessie's tired eyes looked at Meowth and then back at him, "Alright. Meowth can stay..." now she was really asleep.  
  
Kakumei tapped the computer console restlessly. What am I going to tell them? She heard a click and James walked in.   
"I want to know the whole story." He demanded. One eyebrow raised, Kakumei knew she was going to regret asking this, but there was no use beating around the bush, "Is that all you want to know?"   
"Well I'd actually like to start with when are we getting off this haunted place?"  
"I'd hardly call it haunted."  
"Don't avoid the question."  
With a long sigh and an agitated adjustment of her glasses, she told him, "Tomorrow, hopefully."  
"Tomorrow! Is that the best you can do? She co- they could get permanent damage after that long."  
"Can't be avoided. Have you looked out a window recently?" she saw him glance at the window to their right, and then gasp, disbelieving.  
First of all, it was raining. Hard. Then there was the wind. If blew ferociously, sending tsunamis that were just small enough not to come crashing over the high cliffs.  
"Were trapped on this island for now. A boat can't go out there, and neither can your balloon," she paused to look out the window with an expression that made her young, childish face look very aged, "Do you want to know something? This happens every time."  
"What do you mean?" She glanced at the young man standing in front of her. He wore the face of a parent whose child had fallen to the hallucinations. She had seen that many times before. James was very protective of that red-haired woman.   
"OK. You want to know the whole truth? Call in the others."  
  
James and Ash walked down the hallway trying to find Brock. Neither had spoken a word to each other since James' "Kakumei wants to talk to all of us at once, twerp." Ash held Pikachu protectively, though James didn't seem in the mood to pull any tricks right now. Ash didn't care though; he was too scared of loosing any more important friends-human and pokemon alike.   
"Brock! Brock, where are you?"   
"Come on twerp, this is important!"  
"Pikaaaaaa! Pikachu! Pika!"  
Finally they heard an answer. Well it wasn't really an answer. It was a low, but familiar moan. After turning into a darkened hallway of the medical complex, they found Brock.  
He was huddled in a corner, mumbling to himself. He hugged his knees, and rocked back and fourth. It was impossible to tell whether his eyes were open or closed.  
"I'm alone. I'll never get a girlfriend. I'm gonna die alone and unloved. She was right. I'm alone. No girl will ever care about me..." he mumbled, over and over and over.  
"Snap out of it Brock!" Ash yelled, snapping his fingers in front of the teen's face. He looked up at Ash, stared for a second, and then...  
"Oh Nurse Joy!" he cried with pleasure, grabbing Ash's hands, "I didn't know there was a pokemon center here! Might I say that you are the most beautiful Joy I have seen, and I have been almost everywhere!"  
"Dwwwaaaaahhhhh!!!!" Ash screamed and tried to back away. "BROCK!!! I'm NOT Nurse Joy! Don't you recognize me?"  
"No, he doesn't," James managed to get out through breaks in hysterical laughter. Pikachu too, was chuckling and not hiding it very well.  
"Well what do I do?" Brock was now making dinner plans with the hallucinatory Joy.  
"Well...why don't you use sleep powder of something. Bulbasor or Chickorita--" James and Pikachu exploded in another fit of laughter at the thought of Chickorita and Brock getting into a cat fight over Ash.  
"Well my I can't reach my poke balls!"  
"Then have fun on your date. I always thought you two looked cute together."  
"WHAT ARE YOU IMPLYING?!?!?!?!?"  
"Oh relax twerp. It's just a joke-but not to Mr. Hormones over there of course. Now let's see..." he pulled out a Poke ball. "Victorebell, GO!" The pokemon popped out of its ball and clamped onto James' head. "Ow, stop lemme go, lemme go!!!"  
Ash, who was getting more and more scared every moment due to Brock's sweet talk, decided that even though it was funny-now was not the time to let Victorebell have lunch. "Pikachu, give it enough of a shock to get it's attention. No blasting off today."  
"Pika-Chuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!" Pikachu's shock attack got the plant pokemon angry enough to let go of it's master and go after pikachu.  
"Ok Twerps, hold your breath," James ordered, "Victorebell, sleep powder!"   
When that wonderful little excursion was finished...  
  
"OK!" Kakumei slapped a chalkboard (that had mysteriously appeared out of nowhere) with a pointer, "That's three down-four if ya include the pokemon-and two humans and a rat to go."  
James narrowed his eyes, "You could at least have tried to make that more inspirational."  
"Now don't get krabby just cause your girlfriends' are having a lil bit of trouble."  
She said.   
Both Ash and James jumped up at once and shouted in a non convincing tone of obviously fake-disgust, "She's not my girlfriend!"  
Kakumei waved a hand in front of her face, "Yeah, yeah anyway, here's the basic background of your current situation." Pushing a few stray hairs out of her face, she began.  
"This weather is not coincidental. Every time someone on this island starts 'sleep walking' a tropical storm hits here. I believe that this is a way to keep the hallucinating people on the island. I don't believe this is a natural phenomenon either. I think someone is trying to make people believe that they are in some kind of nightmare world."  
James jumped up, "That's right! Now I remember, both Jessie and the twerps said something like, 'she was right. I'm alone' but who is she?"  
Kakumei raised an eyebrow, "I see. Well than it stands to reason that whoever-she-is is making everyone sick."  
"Well how do we stop her?" Ash demanded. Pikachu was on the floor, channeling thunder to its cheeks as a show of strength.  
"Well...by past data...everyone who starts hallucinating seems to be drawn towards the mountain at the center of the island. They sleep for a day or so, and then they start sleepwalking-heading for the mountain. However the storm has usually died down by then and we almost always get them out in time."  
"Almost?" James asked, not liking the sound on that word.  
"I'm afraid so. The others...we couldn't keep track of them. We haven't seen them-about ten in all since I've been here. "  
Ash couldn't stand still, "So how are we gonna stop this?"   
"Honestly? I don't know. I usually don't tell this to many people, however you are a special case." She said, her voice turning grave.  
James wasn't sure he wanted to know, but he had to know. For Jessie. "Why are we a special case?"  
"Whoever-she-is seems to have taken an extreme interest in," she took a deep breath, "Jessica." She winced as she saw James' eyes bulge with anger and fear, as he jumped up.   
"What do you mean? Is she in danger? TELL ME!" he yelled in her face as she tried her best to keep her composure.  
"I can't answer that because I don't know. What I do know is that the neurological field surrounding her, is much stronger than average. She is in danger of being completely and permanently drawn into the hallucinatory world."  
Too shocked to speak, James sank back into his chair. Ash fidgeted, "And Misty?"  
"Well the longer any of them are here, the more dangerous it will be." Kakumei said solemnly.  
"So..." James asked, finding his voice, "What can we do?"  
"Ah, action! Now you're talkin'!" she exclaimed. Lightening a bit, "Well obviously your pals are gonna want to go to the mountain. If we can put a tracker on one of them, we could find the person who's controlling them, and put a stop to it!" She slammed her hand on the desk dramatically.  
Ash beamed. His optimism was returning, "So who will we track?"  
"Well Jessica seems to be the one this person wants most, so if we tracked her we'd have a better chance of success."  
James opened his mouth to process but he was cut off. "It's our best chance-maybe our only hope of stopping this." She seemed to want his permission.  
Ash was already walking confidently out the office door. James turned around to look the doctor in the eye, "If anything should happen to her..."  
She didn't give him any faulty reassurance, "I know." She said softly, and walked towards the room where the girls slept.  
  
Well folks! That's part one! Did you like it? Hate it? I know it was too long ^_^;; sorry. Please read and review. I appreciate any opinions-but if you flame me at least have some constructive criticism. The Conclusion is coming very soon.  
~Jadesfire2  



	2. catch and fall

  
Jessie woke up about an hour after Kakumei had placed the tracking device on Jessie's medical bracelet. She seemed to have more energy than before, but she still thought that she was five years old.She was just climbing out of bed when James walked in.  
"Jessie?" She hadn't noticed him, and gave a little jump when he said her name. He continued, "Where are you going?"   
She picked up Meowth, who was still sleeping, and then turned to face him. "I know you're gonna leave soon, so I-I'm going to try and find someone."  
"Who? Who are you going to find? And who said I was going anywhere?" James demanded. It was probably the person responsible for her and the others' conditions.  
"I-I know it sounds weird," she said sheepishly, "but I had a dream. There was this lady-or was it a guy? Well it sounded like a bunch of people were saying the some thing at once-sorta. Oh I don't know! They-she-he-it-told me that my momma was dead. The voice kept repeating it over and over," James noticed that Jessie's voice was shaky, but she held her composure, "and I said she wasn't, but they just kept saying I was alone, and then I woke up.  
I thought it over, and I don't really know, but she might be dead, and that means... I am alone..." her voice shook again and she stopped talking to concentrate on not crying.  
"I told you, you aren't alone. I'm not going anywhere." She gave him a weird smile. It was weird because there was something adult and knowledgeable about it--as if she had some greater wisdom and had to explain it to James.  
"Do you seriously want to take care of me? I think you just have a bit of guilt. And even if you really do mean it, Team Rocket aint responsible for me now that momma's gone," she lifted her hand and pointed at the red R on his shirt, "You got caught up in this mess, I wouldn't go in any deeper. Just concentrate on your job and ya might be lucky enough to survive. Momma was the best agent. She was paid the most, but even then we were poor. I really feel sorry for you ya know."  
James wasn't sure if she had stayed on her original track of mind. It didn't make sense. Jessie's mother, a rocket agent? Maybe that was why she was so serious about her job... he was confused. He needed more information, and HIS Jessie wasn't going to tell him about her past, so this Jessie might as well. "Why do you feel sorry for me?" he asked.  
"Because you work for Team Rocket."  
With that she left the room.   
  
James tried to process all this. Why did Jessie feel sorry for him about his job? Not to mention it made no sense that Jessie felt sorry for him about a job she took more seriously that he did. It made no sense, but he couldn't worry about that now. He had to go after her. If whoever-it-is even tries to hurt her... he didn't want to think about that, or what he might do.   
  
He had caught up with her just outside the building and, just as expected, she was headed for the mountain. James gritted his teeth; he hated this. Using Jessie as bait wasn't right, wasn't safe. He wished that there was some other way, but Kakumei had been right. Jessie had obviously been affected by the hallucinations than the others. Whoever-it-is wanted her, but James wasn't just going to let her go. That wasn't the plan.  
He followed behind her silently, watching as the light caught on the medical bracelet with the tracking device embedded in it. He wanted with all his heart to keep Jessie away from that snow-covered peak in the distance, but if he stopped her, a number of things could happen.  
One thing that could happen would be the hallucinations being more persistent. Kakumei had said that a good few of the survivors of this sleep-walking-illness woke up without reason-insane. He shuddered. Seeing Jessie acting like this was bad enough, he didn't want to consider that it might end up being permanent.   
Once again, he heard that cracking noise. It wasn't as foggy as before. It sounded closer. He was about to turn to look in the direction he had heard it in, but another glitter of the medical bracelet turned his thoughts back to the troubled woman--or was it child?-that he was pursuing.   
There were other things that could happen to her, regardless of whether she went to the mountain or not. She could get in a coma, suffer amnesia, or permanently think she was this five-year old and have to grow up all over again.  
He shuddered again. Kakumei had said stuff like that hardly ever happened, but she had admitted on never encountering a more serious case. What if his Jessie was lost forever? How would he live like that? Without her... He felt his heart accelerate and his hands shake, and there it was again-the cracking noise. He froze in place. His first guess had been right. That was the sound of a whip. And James knew who's whip it was...Jessibelle's.   
He had heard it right behind him. He took a deep breath, stiffened, and-  
"James? Why are you here?" with that sweet but fear-tinged voice he forgot what he had been about to face. But he soon remembered.  
"Come on Jessie," James ordered, grabbing her by the arm and running as fast as he could away from that whip he had heard.   
  
"She's on the move." Kakumei reported, stepping into the dim lit room. Ash looked up as she entered.  
"Misty woke up. So did Meowth, and I think Brock is coming to," he told her. She seemed satisfied, and held up a small gray box. On the box was an antenna, and a black screen. On the screen was what looked like a basic map of the island in orange lines. There was also a flashing dot on the screen.   
"That's good. Jessie's moved off to the mountain, we'd better get going." She said. "See? She's the flashing dot on this screen. I bet James is with her, but anyway, how are Meowth and Misty?" Kakumei asked earnestly.  
"Meowth can't seem to remember how to talk, so I don't know how he's doing. Misty thinks there are bugs in her bed, and every so often..." he trailed off, remembering Misty. She hadn't been the outspoken tom boy he'd come to 'like like' she was shy, and afraid of everything. She cried often, and he hated to see her cry. "And every so often," he continued, "She starts off on this rant that her parents don't love her, they only love her sisters or something like that. But anyway," Kakumei had given him a look that made him desperately want to change the subject, "What's up with James. He was always the more civil one, but he's acting like some cranky Nidoking."   
Ash had been thinking back to when they were organizing their plans for the safest way to get to the source of the problem, without surrendering Jessie. With every plan, James would yell something like "Well what if this happen to Jessie...?" and when they had finally settled on a strategy that he couldn't find fault with, (besides the fact that it was overly dangerous) he had been rude and cantankerous for the remainder of the day.  
Kakumei had turned to go down to the patient's room. She looked over her shoulder, and gave him a solemn, understanding look. "How would you feel," she asked him, "If it were Misty? Or Pikachu? If they were bait." Ash raised an eyebrow.  
"They're not the bait, that's Jessie." He said, having one of his stupid moments.   
Her look grew more stern, "if, Ash. If." She said, and walked out of the room.  
Ash was alone with his thoughts. Alone. Where was pikachu? "Pikachu?" Ash called to the empty room. No answer. "Hey Pikachu! Come on buddy, where are you?" he walked through the halls.   
Rounding a corner, he found the hallway in front of him sopping wet. "What happened here?" he asked to no one in particular. Ash looked around the hall until his gaze met a fire extinguisher (one of those sprinkler extinguishers) on the ceiling. Droplets of water were coming from it and splashing on the floor with little pat-pat sounds. The cables that ran along the ceiling were charred. What had happened? An electrical fire? What could have caused that? He came to the answer immediately. Pikachu.  
He broke into a blind run down the dark hallway, yelling "Pikachu! PIKACHU!!!" all the way as he ran. Finally he reached the end of the corridor. And there, crouched in the corner, was pikachu.  
"Pikachu! There you are!" Ash happily exclaimed, rushing to his pokemon. Just about four feet from it, he was stopped short as a thunder shock attack missed him by bare inches. "Pikachu?" In the light of the electrical glow, it was easy to see that the pokemon wasn't himself.   
The rodent's fur stood on end, and his eyes were cloudy and dark. Ash recognized that look. It had been in Meowth's eyes, in Jessie's eyes too. It had been the sight of those scared eyes that had made James so sad, and when Misty had awoken, she had those eyes too. It had hurt him to see Misty's eyes like that, but he had taken comfort in pikachu. But now... but now, Pikachu was gone, and in his best friend's place was a fear-driven power pack.  
Ash lifted his hand to his belt to retrieve bulbasour, but at the slightest movement, Pikachu charged up its cheeks with voltage and Ash froze in place.   
He couldn't call out bulbasour. Even if he managed to get the pokeball, Pikachu would shock Bulbasour before it could use sleep powder. He gave a long heavy sigh, and began to inch his hand to his belt. He hated to do this.  
He located the item he had been searching for, and slowly pulled it out. "Pikachu," he whispered so as not the frighten this shadow of his friend, "I'm sorry, but you have to return now." The red beam from the pokeball hit pikachu before it could react, and it disappeared into the light and into the ball.  
Ash sunk to his knees on the floor, cradling the pokeball. Kakumei's words ran through his head. "If, Ash. If."   
How would he feel if his best friend, and the girl he cared for were bait? He would feel useless and angry. How would he act? Rudely and cantankerous to those who had set the most important people in his life as mere bait.   
Poor James. Ash knew what the Rocket agent was feeling like. He kicked himself for not understanding earlier.   
James was lonely and scared for his friends. And Ash was too. He walked through the dark hallway, only now noticing how scary it was. He was glad when he had reached a lit room again.   
"I'd better check up on Misty," he said. But as he remembered those eyes-those clouded, fearful eyes-he suddenly felt worse than ever.  
Ash was alone.  
  
  
"James please stop, I'm so tired." Jessie begged him. He looked back past her, and saw no sign of anyone following them.  
"All right...let's...stop here," he breathed heavily. He hadn't realized he had been running so fast. And he had dragged Jessie along with him. He could have hit himself for that, how could he have forgotten that she was so weak? It was hard to process; the words "Jessie" and "weak" didn't belong in the same sentence. But there she was, trembling on the forest floor, panting hard.   
He hated to see her like this, and he knew HIS Jessie would hate to see herself like this. He felt so alone without her... what he would have given if Jessie would just smack him with her fan right now. So alone... was that the whip cracking again? He didn't want to stick around and find out.  
Gently, carefully, he lifted the trembling shell of a woman in his arms and ran deeper into the forest. James knew that they should find a place to camp out. Jessie could rest, and Kakumei would have time to get here.   
He had a feeling they were in for a battle. If someone wanted Jessie, that person wasn't letting something like her condition get in the way.  
From James's arms she would often tell him to head in a certain direction. Always toward the mountain. James was thinking constantly about three things as he ran. The pressing threat of Jessibelle, the adversary with the power of mind control, and the girl he held.   
Finally he couldn't run any more, and Jessie still had no strength. The person urging her towards the mount knew that no more could be done until she was rested.   
They found a cave at the foot of the mountain, and decided to camp out there. James laid Jessie next to the campfire, and decided that he could risk a few hours sleep, for it appeared that Jessie needed an exceptional amount of rest before she would be fit to scale the peak. He assumed that was her aim anyway. Walk to a mountain-might as well climb it. But that was all right, because Kakumei would get here by morning.   
He actually glad that the twerp had insisted on helping fight this mind controller, he always seemed to come out on top when it was right verses wrong. And they HAD to come out on top, or else Jessie... was that the whip again? No. He had run so far and so fast, Jessibelle couldn't have found them, right?   
He turned his thoughts to other things. Who was making Jessie hallucinate? Why? Why was she/he/it doing that?   
He looked at Jessie again. At least when she slept he couldn't see those foggy, unreal eyes. Those eyes were fearful and dull. They lacked the wondrous passion that was the real Jessie's sapphire eyes.  
Her missed her. Jessica. Sure he wondered if Meowth was ok. He loved the cat like you would love a sibling. He loved Jessie as something more.  
It wasn't a describable feeling. What he had was this drive to do anything for her, no matter what the cost. She was his best friend after all, but there was something more than friendship that he saw in her. A voice, not from his mind, but his heart had said it was love.   
He had wanted to tell her, and yet couldn't. If she didn't feel the same way, their friendship would be lost, and he could never take that. Was it too late now? No! His heart screamed back, and logic couldn't fight such a scream. With fewer doubts in his mind, he fell asleep.  
  
  
"Your pokemon rested Ash?" Kakumei asked the boy in the seat next to her.   
"Yeah..." he answered.  
"Don't use them until you need to, you'll only have a bit of time after they leave their balls before they start to hallucinate, k?"  
"Yeah..." he gently rocked the red-head's togapi in his lap. In the back seat, Brock, Misty, Pikachu, and Meowth lay asleep. Butterfree perched on a headrest to keep its large red eyes on them, should they wake.  
"I know how hard it is...Ash." She said softly, keeping her eyes on the trail as she drove the SUV into the woods.   
He slowly turned to her, and a mixture of anger and paid was on his face.   
"How could you know? You're immune." his voice was like ice.  
"I'll tell you...sometime...just get some sleep." She said. Her quiet voice was soothing, but it pressed as an order and Ash settled back into the chair to rest. "Big Battle tomorrow. The biggest..." her voice hardly reached the boy as he drifted off to sleep. His breathing grew even and he snored a little.  
He never heard her say, "Too many broken hearts are at stake."  
Kakumei took a long, unsteady breath. She was only fifteen, but she felt so old. She had been chasing shadows for too long, she had given up.   
What had made her decide to fight again? She knew. It had been those two. One a boy, the other, almost a man. She remembered all to well the pain that showed in their eyes. Those eyes...they begged for her help.  
Just like............No. Kakumei scolded herself for letting her emotions get out of hand. "Too many hearts..." she repeated. The boy-Ash, and the young man-James. She would do her best to make sure they didn't have to suffer like everyone else she had failed. Those eyes they had-full of pain...  
"I know you're out there..." she said to the chilly air. "I'm making sure you don't hurt another soul, and that's a promise..."  
  
"Misty, why do you want to go that way?" Ash asked her. They had driven until the forest was too thick and they had to walk. Misty and Brock were awake now, and pikachu remained in the pokeball, for it was too dangerous outside of it. Ash knew this whole thing wouldn't stop until they defeated what was on that peak. Misty wanted to go there. Brock wanted to go there. And deep in the back of his mind, Ash could feel himself being drawn to it as well. They had to go there, but he needed to know why. Any information about who was up there could help them win.  
"There're no bugs along this path." Misty answered, protectively clinging to togapi. Her fogged eyes darted around this way and that, as though she expected an ambush.   
"What about you Brock?" Ash turned to Brock, wondering what his reason for pushing the group in the direction of the mount.   
"Didn't you hear it?" Brock asked surprised, "There was a scream. A poor damsel is in distress and she needs my help!" he got that look in his almost non- existent eyes, "Then after I rescue her we can get married, and live happily ever after, and I wont be alone in my old age!"  
Ash sweat dropped. That was Brock all right; even hallucinating he was girl crazy.  
Kakumei had added nothing to the conversation. She seemed to have gone into a bubble of deep concentration. Her eyes locked on the targeting scanner, and would tell them that Jessie was off in this direction every so often. There was a look in her eyes that Ash couldn't capture; one of anger, determination, and the hope that luck existed.  
Suddenly Ash heard a noise. It sounded far off, but it had been a scream. The scream of a familiar person, but he couldn't place who it was.  
Looking over he saw that Misty and Brock had stopped short, and covered their ears as if the scream had been from right next to them. At the same time, Misty and Brock called out to the screamer, "Mother!!" and immediately ran into the underbrush towards the mountain at top speed.  
Ash stood there frozen in place. What had just happened? "Kakumei!" he called to the girl. She was standing still, very stiff, staring straight ahead wide eyed. She gave no answer. "Kakumei we have to go after them!" Ash yelled.   
"Papa...?" she whispered. Ash had hardly heard it.   
"Kakumei?" He put a hand on her shoulder and she jumped in surprise. She shook her head violently.  
"I'm OK, let's go." She ran off in the direction that Ash had disappeared into, and Ash ran behind her, hardly meeting her speed. Something told him that helping him and his friends out wasn't the girl's only motivation, but he had Misty and Brock to worry about now.  
  
"MOMMA!!!" Jessie was running at top speed, and James could barely keep up. They had been sitting in the cave, when all of a sudden, James had thought he heard Jessie scream. But he had been staring at her the whole time and her lips hadn't moved.   
She had jumped up. Her eyes were wild, and she had run out of the cave at once and up the mountain trail. James had run after her, and he had asked her what was the matter. She had answered him, "It's Momma! I heard her! She's alive, but she's in trouble. I gotta help her! I heard her scream!" Jessie had managed to pant out, before gaining a boost of adrenaline and speeding up.  
Now she was running up the trail at an amazing speed. She hardly seemed to notice when she fell, and it looked to James as if her ankle was displaced, but she didn't seem to care.  
She ran on at a steady pace, until all of a sudden she collapsed without warning on the ground. She had made it half way up the mountain.   
James ran to her side. He was panting heavily. All the time his thoughts had been on her. However, he could hear the voices of others. He wasn't sure who they were, but they seemed like familiar shadows. It was as if his love was screaming in one ear, and his fears in the other.  
The voices. They had been of his parents, Jessibelle, Giovanni, among the voices of many others he didn't care to remember. Were they here?   
"James...?" Jessie's voice was a weak, hoarse whisper. But though if was full of fear, that tinge of childhood innocence was not there.  
"Jessie? Jess are you alright?" he asked loudly. She seemed to be unable to keep focused. After a minute she weakly opened her eyes.  
He stared at her. They were not those fogged, sleepy eyes she had had when he last looked at her face. Her eyes were sapphire in color, and sparkled in that fashion he had gotten lost in more time than he could count. "Jessie...?"  
She tried to sit up, but fell back down in exhaustion. Breathing heavily, she managed to get out, "Where am I?"   
"You don't know?" maybe she was back! With that thought in mind the voices in his head seemed to quiet. "What's the last thing you remember?"  
"...Camp... Madame Boss..." she murmured, fighting unconsciousness.  
"Who?" He was just happy she was back.   
Her eyes darted open again. It appeared that he hadn't been meant to hear that. "Never...never mind." She looked around. "Who else is here?"  
James was beginning to wander about that himself. "Just me." he said. He was at least moderately sure they were the only people within a thirty foot radius.  
"You hear that?" She managed to get into a sitting position but fell back again. James caught her and propped her up against a rock in front of him so her could see her better.  
"Hear what?"  
"A voice. It's yelling at me...I...I...heard it all night in my dreams...and it's still here..."  
James froze. Was this it? It seemed that the return of his Jessie was only a mistake on the part of her mystery attacker. The person who had been calling her, had pushed her too hard. Jessie was too tired to carry on the delusion. She couldn't support the hallucinations in her mind until she had more energy to burn. "Who! Who is it?"  
"I don't know...it's getting too loud. It wants me to get up," She stared up at him, and then looked around her once more.  
"My dream...did I sleepwalk?"   
"In a manner of speaking. It was real to me, and a few others who didn't fall asleep."  
"Dreaming..." she whispered. She looked up at him dimly, "It can read...my thoughts. It knows what I'm scared of, and what I want. It's using that...to...get me to..." she trailed off. "Momma..." she whispered, and this time that innocence was in her voice.   
Afraid, James firmly took her face in his hand and forced her to look him in the eye. Her eyes were growing cloudy.   
"James, don't...don't...fall asleep..." she said, fighting off her own drowsiness. "It knows...you. Don't...listen to your mind..." she was panting hard and her had to lean in close to hear her faint voice. "It...knows your mind...it doesn't understand the heart...don't think. It'll get you. Don't..." her eyes were closed.  
"Jessie!" he said loudly and forcefully, "Focus on my voice. Fight it. Don't what?" Her eyes opened slightly, so they were fogged-blue slits.  
"Don't get scared. It's your turn to be...the strong one. I can't do it anymore."  
She fainted, and James knew the person who woke up would be that frightened child.   
  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
Well I hope that was ok. I don't think it was as good as part one.   
PART THREE IS ON THE WAY!!!!!! Thanks for reading, now please review!  
~Jadesfire2  
  
  
  



	3. mountainin case you haven't noticed i ha...

  
"Now the challenger from Pallet Town, Ash Ketchum!" there was a roar of applause as he walked into the stadium. Ash had finally made it to the Jhoto league, and it was time to prove himself against his rival, Gary.  
"Go for it Ash!" Misty cheered for him from her usual place at the sidelines, and Brock was next to her, clapping loudly.  
"Don't worry! I'll win as long as I've got Pikachu, right buddy?" he turned to where the yellow mouse had been walking at his heels. But there was no pikachu there. Where was he? "Pikachu?" he called. No answer.  
"Have you seen Pikachu?" Ash turned to the sidelines, but he got no answer. Misty and Brock were gone as well. Where was everyone?  
"So looser, think you can beat me without your Pika-pal or your looser coaches?" Gary taunted from the other site of the stadium. Ash noticed the applause had died down. He looked around, and he saw that there was no one on the green side of the stadium. No one rooting for him. The Red side was jam-packed, but nobody on his side.  
"What? Where is everyone?" Ash cried in distress and anger.  
Gary took his question with a taunting laugh. "They're not here. You weren't responsible enough. You weren't strong enough, not understanding enough, and you didn't care enough. They're gone. Forever. You're alone, and it's all your fault."   
Ash felt both scared and angry at once. Gary continued in his taunting laugh, and the crowd in the stadium joined in. He felt surrounded by the heartless voices.  
"It's not true..." he manager to say, but he was doubtful. Was Gary right? Was it his fault? Whatever the case...  
Ash dropped to his knees. It was the most frightening thing-to be alone. "I'm alone..." he whispered, "I'm alone... my friends are gone forever, I'm a- ouch!!!"  
Ash opened his eyes to find Kakumei standing over him. Her hand was raised high, and his cheek hurt. She had slapped him, and was ready to do it again if she had to. "Snap out of it!" she yelled, harshly and forcefully.  
"Do you think you'll be of any help to you friends if you take a bad dream THAT seriously? DON'T make me slap you again!"   
Ash stared at her. She looked wild, angry, but behind it all-scared. Her eyes reminded him of a child's. In fact, she seemed weaker than she had been before. But there was nothing weak about the way she hit. His cheek hurt.  
"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry," Ash replied to her. He looked over at Misty and Brock. They lay where they had collapsed of exhaustion just hours before. They needed him now. If he got sucked in like they had...  
"Kakumei...if I start seeing things, you'll still try to help us right? Even if you're the only one left?"  
She stared at him with a mildly shocked expression. "Ash..."  
  
  
"James are you ok? You aren't getting sick are you?" Jessie asked James from the spot on the ground she lay on.   
"No, I'm just thinking about some things," he replied, "You just sleep, k?" She didn't answer, and when he turned around, she was standing right there. She looked really tired, but worried too. Plopping down next to him, she continued to stare at him, as if she was carrying out a strange evaluation.   
He knew she should be sleeping. She had been so exhausted from her incident on the mountain, but she was restless. He hoped she didn't burn herself out, and when was Kakumei going to get there? He hoped they weren't too far ahead, that she and the twerps couldn't help if he and Jessie needed it.  
"Whatcha thinkin' about?" she asked him. That was an easy question.  
He was thinking about Jessie, HIS Jessie. What would he do? Her voice kept echoing in his mind, "It's your turn to be the strong one..." Why? He sure didn't feel strong.   
"You have regrets?" now THAT had come out of nowhere. It was funny, how children and pokemon had a sort of sense about other's feelings. He didn't want to add to the burden of her frayed emotions, but he couldn't lie to her.  
"About what?," he asked her.   
"I dunno, you just look like...like you're blaming your self for something. Am I right?"   
"Yes." He didn't want to elaborate. He blamed himself for what happened to her, and for other things...  
"What do you regret?" In all her innocence, she had stumbled on to the question he always asked himself. At the end of each day, James regretted embarrassing himself, or saying something stupid, but mostly for disappointing Jessie, and he regretted not having the courage to tell her...  
"It's not something you should worry about." He decided that was a good reply. It was, but not an acceptable one.   
"Tell me, you'll feel better, and," once again she surprised him, she moved in front of him and hugged him tightly around the waist. Her chin was propped up on his chest so she could stare right into his face with those eyes of hers. Despite her height, she DID look like a child.  
"...and," she continued, "Everyone's been so sad lately, so I want you to feel better. I don't like it when people are sad." Were all children this perceptive? Now he remembered why he had become friends with Jessie back at pokemon tech. She seemed to be able to see people's hearts. But over the years, she seemed to have lost that. But he loved her anyways.  
"I'm just worried about a friend of mine," James told her.   
"Is something wrong with her?" another surprise.  
"How did you know it was a her?"  
"Because when momma went away, daddy looked like you do. He said his heart hurt. Is that how you feel?"  
He had a feeling Jessie's heart hurt too. "Yes."  
"So you love your friend?"  
"Yes, very much."  
"So...what's wrong?"  
"Someone.........took her away, and I never said..." he didn't think he could finish, but Jessie did it for him.  
"Never said you loved her?" James nodded silently. "Were you scared?"  
"Huh?"  
"Were you too scared to tell her? Is that it? And now you regret it?"  
He sighed, "Exactly."  
Jessie considered his answer, then lifted her hand, and flicked him in the forehead. "Suck it up! Do you know what my momma told me? I'll tell ya. She said, 'Love is when you care as much about someone as you care about yourself. Love is happiness, and it's pain. When you're in love, pain isn't so bad. But if you hide love behind fear, pain is a hundred times worse.' That's what she said."  
"Smart woman." He smirked. Jessie's mother was right. His hidden feeling tore at him, and he didn't know how to fight back.  
"Yes, the smartest. So...you have to promise me, PROMISE me, that when she comes back you'll tell her."  
"I..." James didn't know how to answer. It was so hard, to leave your heart open. But... "Ok, I will."  
She smiled, " and that's a PROMISE. You remember that, k?" He nodded, and with that she gave a yawn and curled up in his lap and went to sleep.  
He looked down at her. A promise... was that a promise he could keep?  
  
  
  
"How much further?" Ash whined. Togapi was getting restless, and he was getting tired of holding the egg anyway. Why couldn't Misty keep it in a pokeball? (About an hour before, Misty had begun to think Togapi was a bug.)  
Kakumei looked up from the small screen, "Just a little more, they're in that cave up there, see?" She shifted the sleeping Meowth fro one hand to the other, and pointed to a ridge above them. It would take them about twenty more minutes to reach it though, because the mountain was so steep and rocky.  
"Ok," Ash sighed. He turned to Misty and Brock, "Well, any reason why we just HAVE to climb this mountain?" he questioned of them.  
Misty slowly turned to him, "Someone is...calling me." Next to her, Brock nodded in agreement.  
Brock spoke, "Can't you hear it Ash? There's a voice, and it will make sure you have everything," he turned, from this height they could see all of the island on this side of the mount, "It's too lonely down there, up here we can all be happy."  
Ash was startled. They WANTED to go? It made no sense. They had seemed tortured by visions earlier, and now they were at karma-ville.  
Why did they want to go?   
  
  
  
"James? JAMES!?! Are you up there?" a high-pitched, female voice dragged James out of his unhappy dreams. Gently putting Jessie on the ground next to the campfire, he walked out of the cave.  
He saw the strange procession of children heading up the slope in his direction. "Up here!" he called, waving his arm.   
  
"Everything ok? What happened while I wasn't here?" Kakumei asked, taking a drowsy and confused Jessie's temperature. "She's a little warm, lie down for a bit, ok?" Jessie nodded mechanically and lay down, watching them from the ground, until she drifted off to sleep.  
  
"...so they both yelled out 'Mother!' and ran off. When we caught up with them, they had fainted." Ash was reporting what had happened.   
"That's weird," James said, staring at the sleeping woman in the corner of the cave, "Jessie cried out 'Momma!' She said she heard her mother scream, but I could have sworn it was Jessie who was screaming."  
Ash suddenly jumped up, "That's it! I knew I recognized the scream I heard, it was my father's."   
"But I thought I had heard MY father scream...wait a minute, I get it now! At least I'm starting to." Kakumei exclaimed, leaving James and Ash confused.  
"You see," she continued, "It wasn't an actual scream. It was an illusion."  
"But," Ash protested, "You heard it. I thought you didn't hallucinate!"  
"Well, I expect we all will. We're so close to the source, the psychic waved are stronger on this mountain." Kakumei said with a sigh. But when she saw the forlorn expressions on the boys' faces, she continued hastily. "But now that we know some of what's going on, we have an advantage!"  
"I still don't get it!" James whined.  
"I'm explaining it. You see, we have a human instinct to protect our family. We are most motivated to protect, the ones who had the greatest influence in our lives. It's human instinct. So, whoever-it-is is using that instinct to drive us up the mountain, by making us think that family member is in danger. Thus, the scream. And why we heard different people.   
When we heard the respective family member scream, we were faced with an urge to run to the rescue. Run to the mountain. Misty and Brock were hallucinating on a deeper level-Jessie on a MUCH deeper level-than us three. That's why they felt they HAD to run up the peak, and we didn't. Understand now?"  
"Uh...no." Ash replied. James still looked confused.  
Kakumei sighed, "All right. I'll use myself as a scenario. My father was the only member of my family I knew. He was the member of my family that influenced my life the most. So. Whoever-is-in-top-of-this-stupid-mountain made the scream sound like my father from my perspective, so that it would want to run up and help him. Like hallucinated bait. Get it now?"  
"Well, that still makes no sense," he turned to Ash, "You heard your father, right?" Ash nodded, "Well, twerp. In the two years that we've been following you around, I never heard you mention your father once. He wasn't at any of your tournaments, and he wasn't in pallet town either time we went there. How could he have been your big influence?"  
Ash sat cross-legged, pondering it. Finally a light bulb appeared and he was able to answer. "Because my father was a great pokemon trainer, and he inspired me to become a Pokemon Master!" Ash said smugly, then added. "Jessie isn't even related to you, why did you hear HER scream?"  
James took a long pause, "Me and my real family aren't close. Meowth and Jess are my family now." But he would never admit to the twerp that he loved Jessie in a different way you'd love a sister.  
  
  
"YIEEEEK!!!!"   
"Huh? I'm awake, I'm awake. What's going-ACK! Brock! Get away from her!" Ash yelped, jumping out of his sleeping bag. He ran over to Brock-who was hitting on a very frightened thinks-she's-five-years-old-Jessie. Now what is it that Misty does when stuff like this happens? Oh yeah.  
"Ouch! Hey! Lemme go, we were hitting it off!" Brock protested as Ash pulled him away by the ear. "I'll call you Officer Jenny!" He called back to poor Jess.  
"Brock, you could be arrested for child molestering!" Ash scolded.   
"Officer Jenny! Did you hear that?" Jessie backed further away, "I did something wrong, YOU HAVE TO ARREST ME!" even a hallucinatory Brock had bad pick up lines. Ash found that unbelievable.  
"What's going on?" a groggy James asked, getting up.  
Jessie sprang up from the ground and ran behind him, "That blind guy was hitting on me!" she whimpered, clinging to James.  
"What!?!" James would have gotten right up then and there and thrashed the squinty-eyed twerp into next week if Jessie hadn't been clinging to him. He turned to Ash, "If that happens again twerp-"  
"Don't worry, I watch him," Ash sighed. Being Misty's replacement pervert detector wasn't too much fun.   
Everyone was waking up now. "Oh no! A Beedrill got Togapi!" Misty whiled, just before Ash handed her the egg, and she almost hugged the life out of it. "Pssst." She whispered, motioning for Ash to put his ear down close. She whispered right into his ear, "Look. Were surrounded by bugs. I bet they kidnapped my mom. Now if we are really quiet, we can get out of here to rescue her." She lifted a hand and pointed up the trail, "There's no bugs there, but we gotta be very quiet."  
Meanwhile Meowth seemed to have challenged some unseen pokemon to a battle and commenced in fury swiping thin air. "Meow! Meowth, Meow!" he growled. He hadn't spoken a word of human since he started hallucinating.   
Ash decided to let the cat be-his claws were sharp. But he was still wishing that James had had Meowth's pokeball. They had tried throwing an empty pokeball at Meowth, but it had just bounced right off, and that meant that Meowth did have a pokeball somewhere. They had managed to keep him with the rest of the group using food as a lure.  
Ash looked for Kakumei. Was she outside? Had she gone on ahead? He looked for her, and  
"How could you have slept through all this noise?" He demanded to know, screaming in the dozing girl's ear and waking her. Misty cried,   
"Shhhhhh!" and clamped her hand over his mouth, and the morning began from there.  
  
  
"Come on you slowpokes!" Brock urged from about twenty feet ahead of them, "I can't keep this girl waiting! If my mother's up there then who knows what embarrassing storied she's telling!"  
Misty and Meowth were also up the trail with Brock, and Jessie was pulling on James's arm to make him walk faster. "You know," Ash said to Kakumei, "Brock's mother's dead, and the two times I went to Cerulean City, I never met Misty's parents."  
"My father's dead too," Kakumei informed him, "James told me that Meowth started out as a stray, but he didn't know anything about Jessie's family. However it seems safe to assume that her mother's dead as well. This person up at the top of this mountain, is feeding them false hopes of seeing their family again. And to top it all off, they get anything else they want." She tossed her head to clear the strands of hair from her face.  
"What do you mean?" Ash asked. He still wasn't sure how this all worked out.   
"Look," she pointed to Brock, "I don't know him real well, but can I assume he's dateless?"  
"Yep."  
"So if he wants to a date, there's a girl waiting for him. Misty--afraid of bugs. No bugs at the top of the mountain, but everywhere else. Do you see where I'm going? They have been tricked into thinking that the only way to be happy, is to reach the top of this mountain."  
"Oh, now I get it." Ash exclaimed happily. He didn't understand such complicated things too often. "So that's why whoever-it-is was making life miserable for them, so they would want to come here?"  
"Exactly!" Kakumei said, "Hey! Wait for us!" She called out to Brock, Misty, Meowth, and Jessie who had joined them.  
  
Those points Kakumei had made were ones to consider. Someone was pretending to offer Jessie whatever she wanted at the top of the mount. What did Jessie want anyway? James wasn't really sure anymore.   
Most would just say that Jessie wanted money and power, and even though that was all nice, James was sure there was something else to it-he just couldn't figure it out.  
"So..." He asked the general party of those who were seeing things, "How are you all planning to rescue your, mothers is it?" Brock and Misty gave him blank looks.   
"Rescue? Are they in trouble? Last time I checked, mom was fine at home." Brock stated.  
"Yeah, what are you talking about?" Misty asked innocently.  
"You were- before you said- didn't you go running off because-?" Ash sputtered out.   
James was equally confused, "Didn't they want to rescue their families?"  
Kakumei nodded, "Well they are in a hallucination, so I suppose it doesn't matter if the facts line up. They seemed to have forgotten that they originally headed here at full speed to save their parents."  
"Yeah!" Ash chirped, "And Brock's mom is dead!" he had said that pretty loud, but Brock had taken no notice. Jessie, however, had paused to listen to the conversation, but she was still confused.  
"Jess? You ok?" James asked her worriedly. She had a look of immense confusion mixed with painful concentration on her face.  
"I don't get it..." she whispered. She and James were walking behind the group, just back enough that the others couldn't hear. "First...that voice...it said that Momma was dead. Then...I heard mom scream, and the voice said that she was in trouble and I should come save her up here on this mountain." Her eyes were a fogged sapphire, and they glazed with tears. She didn't let herself cry though. "Then the voice told me...told me all nice and sweet like...told me that momma was here, and I was going to have everything I ever wanted. Said there were nice new clothes, and I could go back to school, and I would have lots of new toys..." she took a sharp intake of air, and continued. "But I don't know what to believe."   
"Jessie..." James trailed off. What could he tell her? He couldn't just say 'go to the top of the mountain so we can face some psychopath and cure these twerps' and yet, if they didn't face this psychopath, Jessie might never return to normal.  
It would be equally as dangerous to try to escape. They were so close to the mountaintop, that the being there had almost complete control over most of the group's minds. Escaping might mean Jessie and the others could go into comas, have amnesia, or go brain dead. James seemed to be between a Golem and a very hard place.  
"Hey! Over here!" Ash jumped up and down, waving his arms, "We're here!"  
James and Jessie ran up to where he was standing, and Ash pointed a finger at an opening to a cave.   
"Brock and Misty saw it, and ran right inside." Ash reported. The kid was eager to go in after Misty-that much was obvious.   
"Ok," Kakumei said, though her voice had lost some of its strength and she was sweating a little, "I made him wait until you got here," she explained. She held Ash by the collar- the boy couldn't stand still. "We don't know what or who is in their but," she smirked, "If you two ever want to see your girlfriends in their right state of mind again, we gotta go through with it."  
Ash and James simultaneously and mechanically yelled, "She's not my girlfriend!" and Jessie gave Kakumei a blank stare.  
The doctor let out a yeah-right sigh, "Now that's you got your priorities straight, are we going in?"  
Ash nodded vigorously, "We have to get Misty and Pickachu back! Brock too!" he yelled.   
James and Kakumei stared at Jessie. She said softly, "I thought I knew what was in there, but now I'm not so sure...but..." She turned and walked into the entrance. Just before she disappeared into the shadows, she turned around and said softly, "It's important isn't it? I'll go." And she disappeared into the cave.  
"Let's Go!" Ash said, running after her, Kakumei at his heels.  
James had been too stunned to speak. He knew she had been scared, but she had gone in anyway, to help out. He forced his legs to move, and he broke out into a run.   
He rushed into the cave, but could see nothing but blackness in front of his face. Suddenly he heard a familiar scream.   
"Jessie!" he yelled, and rushed in the direction of the sound.   
He was stopped short, as lights came on all at once. James couldn't see. The change of light blinded him, and these weren't normal illuminations. It wasn't an electric glow, it seemed as if the cave walls were a bright and glimmering crystal-hot blue.  
"So now," a voice said. It spoke in a calm, soothing, but somehow creepy voice. Though he couldn't see the speaker, the voice was clear. It came from everywhere all at once. The voice was neither male, nor female. It wasn't human, but it was like no creature he'd ever known. It continued, "My pawns have finally arrived. It's time to play the game."  
  
  
  



	4. The Most Dangerous Game

  
  
James looked everywhere for the source of the voice, but his eyes had a hard time adjusting to the strange lighting. In the hot-bluish aurora of the crysatline light, he saw he was in an incredibly large chamber. It was a rough cone shape, and everywhere along the walls were crystals. Large crystals, that seemed to be far greater and mysterious than any ordinary piece of quartz or glass. In the center of the room was a circular platform, and hovering above it was a diamond-shaped crystal. This particular crystal wasn't transparent. It glowed, and it seemed to be the source of light in the room.   
Looking around once more, he didn't see a soul. No strange psychic entity, no ghosts, no human. No one was there, except that voice.  
"Who are you, and where are my friends?" He demanded to the room.  
"I," replied the voice, "Am nothing your primitive mind can process."  
James let out angered huff, "Try me."  
The unseen speaker let out a soft, know-it-all laugh, "That's not important for you, but as for your friends, I will show you where they are."  
The cavern glowed with that strange light, and suddenly all along the walls, were entrances to separate caverns adjoined to the room he stood in. Each doorway was rimed with crystal, but on one of the doors, the crystal glowed.  
"In there," the voice said.  
James knew it was probably a trap. He had a bad feeling about it, but he had to save Jessie, Meowth, and even Kakumei and the twerps. He slowly walked down the crystal corridor. He wanted to run, but he knew he had to be ready for anything that might appear.  
All along the walls, were more crystals of all sizes. As he passed one, James noticed that something was inside it! Peering closer into the jewel, he saw a small Mareep. Looking at the crystals as he passed by them, he found about four more Mareep, a Charmander, about three Evee, and a numerous supply of Ratatas and Pidgeys. "Is this why there are no wild pokemon on this island?" he asked the voice. He could only guess how many pokemon were scattered in these crystal pods around the cave.  
"Yes, I needed them here, but it's humans I'm interested in." James shuddered, once again fearing a trap and he looked around. He was still alone, so he figured he could at least get some questions answered, but he couldn't be too forward. He needed to work up to bigger questions, so he started out small.  
"If it's people you want, why take the pokemon?" He inquired, trying to make his voice sound like he didn't care.  
The reply didn't come from the voice, but from a more familiar speaker,  
~~~~"Well did you see all them pokemon on the news? They were all headed for that battle with those birds. They were pokemon from all over the world. They sensed that misbalance of nature long before anything really happened."~~~~ Kakumei's high-pitched tone informed him.  
"Kakumei? Where are you?" James called out, happy he wasn't alone.  
"She is not in the corridor," the voice replied, "I am only repeating what she said a few days ago. It explains things quite well."  
"Huh?" James didn't want to appear dumb before this unknown person, but it seemed like a good time to say 'huh?'.  
"Pokemon," the voice replied, "Are what balances nature. This world is upheld by the pokemon's sense of order." It suddenly clicked in James's mind that that was why all those pokemon had come to the battle with Lugia. They had come to restore the balance of nature.  
"So that's how you control the weather here," He said, starting to understand.   
"Correct," came the response, "With only a few trained pokemon, usually in their balls, the balance of nature has shifted in this place. With the pokemon under my control, I can control the weather of this island." And that was why they were trapped.  
James had reached the end of the corridor. Stepping into another-but smaller-cone shaped crystal-room, he looked around and gasped. Lining the walls of the cavern were larger crystals, and inside each one was a person. There were about eighteen people in all. They were in the crystal, eyes closed, like the pokemon that had been in the hallway. Near the center of the room were four familiar humans, and pushed in the right corner of the room was a just as familiar pokemon.  
Ash, Misty, Brock, Kakumei, and Meowth had been caught. "What did you do to them?!?" James demanded, hitting Meowth's crystal entrapment with no avail.  
"I made an exchange, so to speak. They aren't dead, they are in a sort of dream-stasis." The voice answered. "From their point of view, it's real. They are living the life that their heart desires, inside the dream-reality I created for them."  
James gave the crystal pod another hard whack, cutting his hand.   
"That will do you no good. Only two people can break that pod. Me, and that Meowth." The voice chided.  
"What?" James asked. If Meowth could break out of that crystal coffin, why didn't he?  
"The pokemon, as well as everyone else, is not a prisoner. Your cat friend can leave anytime he wishes." James suddenly understood.  
"But that's just the thing isn't it?" he growled, "You've made it so that they don't want to leave. You've given them everything, except the knowledge that it's all a lie!"  
"I granted them happiness. I can let you see their dreams, without putting you to sleep as well. Then you can see that I am telling the truth, and they are happy." The voice offered.   
James wasn't sure. Going in on someone's dream would be an extreme violation of their privacy, and if they woke up, he'd be dead meat. But still, he had to find some way to wake them. "And Jessie?" he asked, "Where is she?"  
"Asleep as well, but not in here. I will not show you her dream, but you may pick one other dream to view." James shrugged. At least she was safe, and although he was curious about her dreams, he knew that if she got back to normal she would kill him for peeking in on her fantasies.  
"And what do you plan to do to me?" he asked.  
"You are to be put into stasis as well."  
James knew there was probably no way he could stop that, unless there was some clue in the dreams. Maybe he should view one of these people's dreams, so he could see ahead of time if there was an escape route. "All right then, show me someone's dream!"  
"I have many sleepers, choose"  
  
  
"Poppa! I'm home! School was great!" little Kakumei called as she ran into the house. Her father was baking something that smelled wonderful, and he greeted her with a warm smile.  
"What did you learn today?" he asked, checking the temperature of the cookies he had just pulled out of the oven.  
"Miss Romako taught us how to play t-ball. You put this ball on a stick that's called a T and you take a big bat and you hit it!" Kakumei explained, using vivid arm motions. "Then you run the bases, but if you get tagged you're out, and if you touch all the bases you get a home run. Poppa, I got three home runs! All the kids want me on their team!" she cried with joy.  
"That's great honey," her father said, patting her on the head. "Kindergarten sounds like a lot of fun. Here, have a cookie."  
She took one and began to munch hungrily. She took as many cookies as she wanted. It seemed like ages since she had eaten last. When was the last time she had eaten? Kakumei couldn't remember. She supposed it was lunch or breakfast that day, but she had been with some other people. A boy, a girl, another boy, and a pokemon. At least that's what she thought. It was probably a dream, seeing as there were no kids like that at her school. But she still couldn't shake the feeling that she had forgotten something. Something important...  
  
James looked from one dream pod to another. He didn't know who to choose. Should he pick someone he knew, or a stranger? Someone he knew would be very angry if he intruded on his or her dream, but if he was able to wake a stranger, why would the person help him? "You choose." He finally said to the voice. And promptly, one of the crystals started to glow.  
  
  
"Mamma!" little Jessie called as she ran in, covered with snow from sledding, "I'm home, and Cassidy's here!"  
"Hello Ms. Miamoto," the blond girl called from next to Jessie. Miamoto walked in and hugged her daughter.  
"I'll make you girls a snack," she said and walked into the kitchen.  
After she left, the two girls sat down to watch tv. "Guess what!" a happy, five year old Jessie chirped.  
"What?" Cassidy asked, grabbing the remote.  
"Momma is getting a promotion, and she doesn't have to go on that assignment to find mew!" Jessie replied. She was happy that her mother didn't have to go away, but something seemed so out of place...  
"Something wrong Jess?" Cassidy interrupted her thoughts.  
Jessie shook her head, "No, I just have this weird feeling, like I forgot something..."  
  
The dream pod in front of James glowed with the usual aurora, but with more intensity. There were circles, progressively getting bigger on the face of the pod, like ripples in a pond.  
"Go inside," the voice ordered and James complied.  
Stepping through the crystal was like moving through dry water. There was a bright light all around him, and suddenly he was no longer in the cave.   
James looked around. He was on the sidelines in a stadium packed with cheering people. Up on a high green platform, stood Ash Ketchum. "So I entered his dream, I forgot to look who it was before I came in." James thought aloud.  
Turning to see the other side of the stadium, there was a high red platform and on it stood Gary Oak. It looked like the battle was about to start.   
James looked over at a nearby bench on the stadium floor. Brock, Tracy, and Misty-who was wearing an 'I love Ash' shirt of all things-were on the bench, cheering Ash on. And in the bleachers was the largest collection of twerps James had ever had the displeasure of seeing in his entire life. There was Mrs. Ketchum, Professor Oak, Todd, Richie, Duplica, A.J., Gizelle, Mikey, Casey, and just about every other person Ash had run into since he left Pallet. There didn't seem to be one person that wasn't rooting for the kid.  
James mind was racing, how long am I gonna be allowed in here? How do I wake this twerp up? I have to wake him up or else...  
Suddenly James had an idea, and he left the stadium in a hurry. Even outside, he could hear the announcer's voice as the battle began. "And now, the reigning champion Ash Ketchum, pokemon master, will battle loser trainer Gary Oak..."   
It sounded like the twerp would be happy in a dream like that, so the only way to wake him up, was to turn it into a nightmare.   
  
Ash's life was going great. He was a pokemon master, he had a wonderful fiancé (Misty), he had caught every pokemon, gotten every badge, and now he was finally going to beat Gary! Ash smiled as he motioned to the pokemon next to him, "I choose you, Pikachu!" he shouted, and from beside him pikachu jumped onto the field.  
"I choose," Gary shouted, pulling out a pokeball, "Arcanine!" a fiery wolf pokemon appeared on the stadium floor across from pikachu.  
Ash smirked. This time Gary was going to be the looser. "Pikachu, thun-"   
"Not so fast, twerp!" an all to familiar voice yelled out. Ash looked up startled. Hadn't he defeated Team Rocket? And where were Jessie and Meowth?  
But there was James. He dropped down on the stadium floor from the pokemon league blimp, and landed between the two pokemon. "Hand over that Pikachu," he demanded.  
Ash gritted his teeth. Why did this have to happen now? Why did his moment to shine have to be ruined? James would blast off especially hard for this, "Pikachu, thunder now!" he ordered.  
"Arcanine, fire blast!" Gary helped.  
James just stood there, covered in waves of flame and electricity. He just stood there, with a satisfied smirk. The attacks didn't affect him at all. They went right through him! "Won't work this time twerp," James laughed, picking up pikachu by the scruff of it's neck. Pikachu tried to shock him, but James tossed the rodent at a nearby bench just as it fired it's attack. The people on the bench-Ash's closest friends-were shocked instead.  
"No!" Ash shouted, as his friends seemed to vanish in electricity.   
James laughed, "You're alone now, twerp." And he was right.  
No one was there in the stadium. All Ash could do was pant, "No..." repeatedly as he looked around. There was only him, and James. "No! This isn't right!" Ash shouted.  
James smirked, "You'd like to be anywhere but here, huh?" he laughed.  
And James was right. Ash frantically searched his belt for a pokeball, but found none. "This isn't right..." he whispered in despair, "THIS ISN'T RIGHT!" he was now screaming.  
He couldn't fight the fear and uncertainty that he felt. Alone. And he couldn't fight being lonely and needing help. All he could do was scream, "I WANT TO LEAVE! THIS ISN'T RIGHT!!!"   
And with that, Ash found himself blinded by a hot, crystalline light. He wasn't at the stadium anymore. He was in a cave.   
Panting, Ash rose to his feet and looked around. The first thing he saw was James. "What's going on?" he demanded. James had been standing, arms crossed, with an unreadable expression on his face.   
"You were asleep," he said, "I woke you up."  
  
  
"Wow Misty! Those are the prettiest Princess Dolls I have ever seen!" Misty's sister Lilly gasped, staring with jealousy at Misty's new things. Daisy and Violet nodded, agreeing with Lilly.  
"Yeah," Misty said with satisfaction, "and I got the mew kimono from my boyfriend, Ash." Misty was extremely happy. She had become the world's greatest water pokemon trainer, and was now the leader of the Celadon gym. After that, her parents had finally noticed that she was not the runt, and as an apology for ignoring her all this time, she had been given the most excellent set of princess dolls. Misty had of course been generous, and had given her sisters her old hand-me-downs.  
Not to mention Misty's boyfriend, Ash. He had bought her a new kimono, and a 10 speed bicycle, and he absolutely adored her.  
Misty's sisters walked out of the room, but then someone else came in. "Hi Mist, you haven't let any trainers get a Cascade badge have you?" Ash joked as he walked in.  
Misty giggled, "Of course not! I'm undefeatable!" she chimed.  
Ash smiled, "Now come on, we're going out to lunch to celebrate your new gymleader status." He said, taking her hand.  
"Where are we going?"  
"To that nice French place you like so much! Only the best gymleader deserves that! Hey, I don't think even I could beat you!" Ash smiled, kissing her on the lips.  
"Y-yeah..." Misty answered when the kiss broke, "I'm unstoppable..."she said with an uncertainty that Ash didn't seem to notice.  
Misty's mind was racing. Why am I so uncertain? She thought. Sure, it had been a great kiss, but something he had said didn't seem right... Since when did Ash admit that she was a better trainer? Something wasn't right here...  
  
  
  
"So let me get this straight," Ash was saying, "You. Went inside MY dream?" he seemed at the crossroads of embarrassment, anger, and disbelief. James found that pretty amusing.  
"Yes I did. It was the only way to wake you up," James said, then added with a snicker, "how many 'I love Ash' shirts did you sell?"   
Ash blushed furiously, "You have no right to intrude on someone else's dream!" he shouted. James had seen that coming, and was not particularly offended. He shrugged.  
"How else was I supposed to get you out of there, twerp? Unless you actually want your girlfriend to stay asleep." James huffed. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed the twerp's help. It would take a lot more than just him to save everyone, and saving the day just happened to be the twerp's specialty.   
"Misty!" James heard Ash yell. Apparently the kid had just now begun to notice the sleepers in the room. The little kid had his face pressed to the crystal barrier between him and the sleeping girl. The boy turned to James.  
"What happened to her?" he asked, voice full of urgency, "Brock and Kakumei too, tell me!"  
James nudged some of the broken crystal pieces that had once been Ash's little coffin, "They're still asleep. That's how you were."   
Ash's eye's visibly widened, "You mean I was like that too?" he stuttered. He then commensed in wacking the pod, trying to break it.  
James felt the throbbing in his own hand that he had cut trying to save his friend Meowth. He knew he probably would have hurt himself much worse, if it had been Jessie in the pod. He would have punched his arm bloody if the one he loved was trapped, and he had to break the crystal to set her free. "Don't do that! You can't break it." He yelled to Ash.  
"I'm not just going to let her sleep her life away!" the boy yelled back, continuing to hit the pod. James had to admit he felt a certain empathy with this annoying little boy. The strong bond between him and Jessie, would have made James do anything for her, even if that meant he would get hurt. He had known Jessie far longer than the twerp had known Misty, but there was still a bond between the two children. It wasn't as strong as his and Jessie's yet, but it was there. When Ash and Misty reached the age of James and Jessie, the bond would have grown the size that James's was now. Love can only get stronger.   
"Will you listen to me twerp?" James yelled, grabbing the kid's scratched up hand away from the crystal. Ash glared up at him. "You can't help her that way, we have to find the source of all this and stop it!"  
Ash seemed to think it over. He looked back at the large rows of pods, and to his hand, and back to the crystal. Then he menacingly whispered, "We are getting them out of there no matter what. Where's this source? We're going to stop it."   
Right on queue, the voice echoed throughout the cavern, "Well, look who's awake. I didn't expect the little boy to be strong enough, and yet...I underestimated you as well James. But I had been right not to put you into stasis right away." Suddenly with a jolt of the ground and a flash of blue light, the pod that contained Misty seemed to float at an amazing speed. It floated upward and right through the cave ceiling, and out of sight. "You little boys have just what I want, and I have just what you want. Checkmate. You'll find it best for all concerned if you follow the guideposts."And promptly, crystals started to glow, creating a definite path for Ash and James to follow.  
  
  
"Are you new here?" Kakumei asked a girl about her age that she hadn't seen before. "I haven't seen you at school, are you new?" she asked again.   
"No..." the girl said in an almost whisper. She was even shorter than most of the kids in Kakumei's kindergarten class. She had blue hair, that was pulled into two looped-braded pigtails behind each ear. There was something strange about her, it was the eyes. They looked like they used to be a magnificent blue, but they were fogged, and wide. It gave the impression that the girl was blind-though she obviously wasn't. More like she was sleeping. But she also looked like she would burst into tears at any moment. "I've been here for a long time..." she said to Kakumei, and then added, more to herself, "a very long time..."  
Kakumei pondered this. She had been at this school a while, but she was positive that she had never seen this child. "Oh, I guess I just never saw you." She said to break the silence.   
The girl nodded, "I'm used to it..."  
Kakumei was now feeling a bit bad. This girl didn't seem to have friends, but why? There didn't seem to be anything wrong with her, but those foggy eyes did set Kakumei back a bit. Shaking her head, Kakumei decided that she would try to be this kid's friend. It was important to have friends after all... "Hey! You wanna play T-Ball?" she asked the kid, although the strange child didn't seem too athletic.  
"You don't want to play with me, I'm no good," the girl shook her head.  
"Yeah I do!" Kakumei protested, "You don't know what I want, and besides, if you're not good at t-ball, you're gonna need a good teacher like me!" she filled with pride at her athletic ability.   
The girl rested her back against the playground fence, and looked outside. Finally turning back to Kakumei, "Alright. Show me how to play." She said in that soft voice.  
"Great!" Kakumei smiled, grabbing the kid by the hand and dragging her to the field, "I'm Kakumei, what's you're name?" she asked as she and the girl made their way to the small baseball diamond on the black top.  
"My name...?" the girl asked, Kakumei nodded, "It's Sabishii."  
Weird name, Kakumei thought but didn't say so. And she and Sabishii made their way to the diamond, where the T was already set up.  
  
"Who's this one?" Ash asked. They had made their way into a large chamber. In the middle of the room was another dream pod, but it was much larger than the rest. Inside it was a little girl with blue hair, that was loop-braded into pigtails behind her ears. She was very small, but the crystal pod she slept in was enormous.   
"I don't know. I've never seen her," James answered.  
"You know I thought I saw her before..." Ash said after they had left the room and were following the glowing crystals into another passage.  
"Where?"  
"Oh I don't know, I think she was in the stadium at the battle in my dream. Maybe that was it, she looks real familiar." Ash said and they continued to walk through the corridor.  
  
"EEEEEEK!!!!!!!" Meowth's ears perked up when he heard the scream. Was someone in trouble? That was strange. There never seemed to be trouble around here-life was perfect.   
Where Meowth lived, there were lots of other Meowths. He had a girlfriend-Meowsy-and there was pleanty to eat. He was the leader of a gang of cat pokemon. He was looked up to by all the pokemon, even Persians. And all the humans liked him too. They would pet him and say that he was a good kitty.   
Lately though, Meowth had felt out of place. He had this feeling that he couldn't describe, and there seemed to something missing. What was missing? He had been pondering this question when he had heard the scream, and he was now running to see what the matter was.  
There was a little girl. She was very small, and her hair was pulled into pigtails that were looped braids. She stared with wide, fearful and foggy eyes at a Persain that was hissing and bearing its teeth at the poor kid.  
Now this really ticked Meowth off. Of all the humans, little girls were the best. Every so often a little boy would throw a rock at him, but never a little girl. The girls would coo and say how cute he was. They would give him little treats, and brush his fur. Plus there were her eyes. Those dulled, fear-stricken blue eyes were painfully famailar. He felt like he knew this little girl. Maybe if her hair were more red, she would look like... oh he couldn't think of it. But now was no time to try.   
Meowth stuck out his claws and charged at the Persian. He gave the larger cat a great fury swipes, and sent the pokemon running. Satasfied, Meowth turned to the little girl.  
She stared at him with wide-eyed wonder, as if she was computing what had happened. Finally she shyly bent down and stroked Meowth's back, "Good kitty..." she whispered. Meowth felt himself purring. He had always been more comfortable around humans, but he never knew why...  
  
"What's wrong Jess?" Cassidy pried at her, "I'm your best friend! You can tell me anything, so tell me what's wrong." Jessie nodded, but she was unsure. What was wrong? She didn't know. Everything just seemed so out of place, and she felt strange. Like there was a hole inside of her. But what was missing? She didn't know. Didn't she have everything she wanted? Yes. But Jessie wasn't sure if she had everything she needed.   
"Nothing's wrong," she lied, smiling, "I just didn't get enough sleep. I'm pretty tired."   
"Oh, ok" Cassidy said, and turned to look into a shop window they were passing.   
Jessie wasn't sure why she felt she couldn't tell Cassidy what was on her mind. Even if Cassidy was her best friend, Jessie still didn't think she was someone she could tell everything to. She needed someone she could tell everything to. Nobody seemed to understand, not even her mother. That was what was missing. Jessie heaved a long sigh as she considered everything. Why did it feel like her heart was torn in half? Why couldn't she be happy if she had everything? Why, with so many friends, did she feel so alone?   
Jessie couldn't answer these questions, but she did know one thing for sure. Something was missing. Some big part of her life was missing, and she knew she had to find out what.   
  
  
"LOOK!" Ash pointed to the centerpiece of the room they had entered. James had been walking with his head down, but it jolted up in surprise.   
"Jessie!" He cried. Ash nodded, and searched the room for Misty. There she was-trapped in the crystal in the corner of the room. He knew he had to get her out of there, but he had no idea how. It didn't seem like that voice was going to let him or James in any more dreams.  
James was meanwhile staring at his partner through the crystal in her dream-coffin. His face was a mixture of pain and relief. "Jess..." James whispered. Ash could hardly hear it, but James continued, "I'll get you out of there...I promise." Ash made a silent, similar promise to Misty.  
"I KNEW IT!" Out of nowhere came the mysterious voice. It had come up so suddenly, that Ash jumped in surprise. "I had sensed it before...and I am now positive. You, little boys, you hold the answer to my greatest question."  
"Well then why don't you answer one of my questions then!" James shouted to the room, "Who are you and what do you think you're doin--" he was cut off by the voice.  
"Who am I?" it echoed. There was a shaking of the ground and suddenly Ash saw something coming towards them. It was that humungous dream pod with the little girl inside, and it was hovering down the corridor!  
The pod glowed, and burst apart with a bright blue flash. Standing barefoot over the shattered crystal pieces, was the little girl. She opened her clouded blue eyes and spoke, "I am Kagami." The inhuman voice eminated from the small, innocent looking child.  
Ash stood there for a few second's trying to process this. A little girl? THAT little girl was responsible for all this? "YOU are the one controlling my friend's minds?" Ash shouted, "But how? You're so young and--"  
"This," Kagami said bitterly, thrusting out her small hands in fromt of her, "Is my shell." Then her tiny fingers pointed at Jessie, asleep in the crystal. "She will make an excellent new body."  
  
James could hardly believe what he had just heard, but it made a few things make a little more sense. So this was why Jessie had been hit hardest by the hallucinations. This was why this Kagami was so interested in Jessie. She-it wanted a new form, and Jessie was it.  
Suddenly James felt hot with anger, "You can't do that! You can't just use her body as your little mobile suit! I won't let you!" he screamed.   
Kagami gave an amused smirk. "Although I am interested to know how a pestilian like you believes he can defeat me, you are right. I can't possess her body. As soon as I realized that her state would allow me to take over her, I tried to do so. It didn't work. I found by searching her soul deeper that something was...missing."  
James felt himself fill with relief that Jessie was safe, at least for the moment. But what had that last part been?   
"Missing? What do ya mean?" Ash asked from beside James.  
"As she is, her soul is incomplete."  
"What?" James asked, dumbfounded. Jessie's soul was incomplete? How could that be possible?  
"I cannot posses a soul with a piece missing, but you..." she pointed at James, "Have what I need."  
"What do you mean?" James was really confused now.  
"Part of her soul...is buried inside yours."  
James felt his mouth drop open. "What? That's impossible!"  
Kagami nodded, "I wasn't sure at first, but as you neared the woman I could sense her spirit grow stronger." She looked James in the eye and he felt as if he was facing the Boss, "Now. Explain this bond to me. How is it that you posses a portion of her spirit, and she still lives? How is it that her strength seems to grow when you are near? How have you infiltrated her heart? WHAT IS THIS PETTY HUMAN FACTOR THAT HAS KEPT ME FROM MY DESTANY!?!"   
James took a few deep breaths, but it didn't help. He still didn't understand what she was getting at.  
"And you..." Kagami turned to Ash. "It's there in you as well-with that other little girl. The bond isn't as strong as it is with the older two, but I can sense it growing. TELL ME WHAT THIS IS!"  
James had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, but it sounded like this was the missing ingredent for taking over Jessie, and that was the last thing he wanted. "I don't know what you're talking about, but even if I did I wouldn't help you hurt Jessie!" James shouted defiantly.  
"Very well..." came the answer. Kagami's eerie voice was at a calm that was unsettling, "Suffer as you choose, I will get my answer."  
  
"That's it!" Kakumei yelled as Sabishii finally hit the ball past pitcher's mound. But instead of running the bases, the blue-haired girl turned and walked over to the schoolyard fence. It was a metal fence so you could see what was on the other side.  
"Ever wanted to go out there?" Sabishii asked, pointing to a trail that lead into a thick forest. It was away from the road that lead to the rest of the town, and to Kakumei, the forest looked scary.  
"Well I really don't want to go down that trail, no." she answered, standing next to the small girl by the fence. "Why would you want to go to a place like that?"  
Sabishii shrugged her shoulders, "Because of what's on the other side of the forest. I would have gone a long time ago, but I was too scared to go alone. Want to go with me?"  
Kakumei wrinkeled her nose, "What's on the other site of the forest?"  
Sabishii turned and looked her in the eye and said solemly, "Everything you left behind." She said.  
Kakumei wasn't sure why or how, but she seemed to understand what the girl had just said. And at that moment, she felt like she DID want to leave this place. As perfect as this place was, she could almost hear a different part of herself calling her away. "All right." She said, "Let's go."  
  
  
  
"James dearest, you didn't think you could get away from me, did you?" Jessibelle asked, snapping her whip at James who just barely dodged it. He didn't know what to do, Kagami must have teleported him back to his parent's house, he thought as he ran screaming around the dungeon.  
"Hiya!" Jessibelle's yelled, oblivious to the fact that her whip had nothing to do with karate.   
James was still thinking things over as her ran. He couldn't get back to Jessie now, and when that thought hit him, he tripped up and crashed to the ground. Jessie. He couldn't leave her like that...  
  
  
"Momma..." Jessie said meekly as she entered the room. Her mother was cooking dinner.  
"What is it sweetie?" she said to Jessie, smiling as usual.  
Jessie ran and hugged her mother tightly, then said, "I'm going out for a walk, k?"  
Looking a little confused, her mother replied, "Ok, but be back for dinner."  
"Yeah..." Jessie said as she left the room. She could feel her eyes weld up with tears, but she held them back. It hurt to leave her mother, but it hurt her to stay as well. She didn't know what it was, but her heart was desperately calling out to something-to someone, and Jessie knew she couldn't stay.  
"I'm sorry..." she whispered to her house as she turned the corner and it was out of sight. Jessie broke into a dead run. Rushing down the street she saw Cassidy, but didn't stop.  
"Where are you going?" Cassidy yelled.  
Jessie turned but kept running. "I have to leave!" she shouted. She then said to herself, "I have to leave. I don't belong here, and I have to get out..."   
  
  
"I've got you now, James. Time for the wedding!" Jessibelle happily cried as she stood over him.  
"No!" James cried, managing to get up and run. He ran for a bit, with Jessibelle at his heels, but she soon had him backed into a wall.   
Jessibelle pulled back out a pokeball, "Vileplume, go! Stunspore him!"  
"Plume!" the pokemon cried, and shot out the paralyzing dust at James.  
"No..." James gritted his teeth as he felt his joints freeze up. I can't let her get me. Jessie needs my help; they all need my help. I can't let this happen, I promised Jessie. I'm getting out of here; I WON'T break my promise...  
Then three things happened. First, James's joints didn't seem to hurt as much. Then, he noticed that the colors of the room weren't as bright as they had been a minute ago. Finally James noticed that through the dull color of the wall he leaned against, he could see that it was no wall. It was a crystal apparatus with a beautiful red haired woman inside.   
"Am illusion!" he cried, "How could I have been so stupid!" but this illusion had come with the greatest intensity, and he could still feel the whip as it hit his arm.  
"You won't get away!" Jessibelle hissed.   
Wincing from the pain in his arm, James looked back at the crystal. It was glowing, and it's surface had what looked like many ripples in a pond. The crystal was weak.   
Illusion or not, it hurt. James noticed that his upper arm was bleeding a bit, and he realized that this hallucination was intense enough to actually kill him.   
James didn't like invading Jessie's privacy like this, but he had no choice. He had to get away. He jumped through the liquid crystal and entered her dream.   
  
  
"Where...? What?" Kakumei stuttered as she looked around. The last thing she recalled was reaching the other side of the forest with Sabishii, and now where was she?   
She was sitting in what looked like some shards of broken glass or crystal, and all around her were people inside clear, glass-crystal coffins. She shuddered. "Where am I?" she asked aloud to the room. Sabishii's words echoed in her mind to form an answer. Everything you left behind. And it hit her. She was on the mountain. But where was everybody?   
Looking around some more she saw two famaliar faces. Brock and Meowth. Looking around again, she realized that she recognized a few more people as well. About ten of the people had come to this island in her lifetime, and had suffered the hallucinations. Those ten hadn't been lucky enough to escape. The few others that remained, she didn't recognize.  
"I have to stop this!" She cried aloud, but she also wanted to run in terror. She looked closely at a coffin at the end of the row. "Poppa..." she felt herself crying, and quickly wiped the tears out of her eyes. "I'll find a way to stop this, don't worry..."   
"Meowth! What's goin on here? Ware am I?" a scruffy voice said from her heels, as a small crystal in the corner shattered and Meowth woke up.  
"Meowth!" Kakumei exclaimed and happily hugged-to-the-point-of-near-suffication the cat pokemon she hardly knew. "I don't know what happened, I went into the cave, there was a bright light, and I woke up here. I had the strangest dream..." She told the cat.  
"Well I was dreamin dat dis kid picked me up and walked out of the town I was in. Then I was here." Meowth said, struggling from her grasp.  
Kakumei nodded, "There was a kid in mine too. We were leaving this forest and I ended up here, but that's beside the point. Look around."  
Moewth did so, and his eyes widened in shock, "What happened?"  
She shrugged again, "I don't know. I thought they were dead, but then you came out of one of those coffin things, and I suppose I did too, so that means they're asleep in there."  
"What happened to Jessie?"  
Kakumei shrugged, "I dunno what happened to anybody, but I'm betting they'll be needing our help."  
"Dat's right!"   
"So let's go!"  
  
  
Jessie didn't like this very much. She usually loved to travel, but it really wasn't much fun with nobody to talk to. Not to mention she had no idea where she was going. She just knew that she was looking for something, or someone-she'd know it when she saw it. She just didn't know where to look.  
"Hmmmmm...hmmmmm......" What was that? Jessie heard a voice from off to her left. It was the voice of a small child, a very small child. Jessie turned a corner into the park and found a little girl walking leisurely through the flowers in search of something.  
Jessie stared at the odd little figure. Now Jessie was a bit short for her age, but this girl was even smaller. She had foggy blue eyes and her blue hair was in looped, braided pigtails. She was humming a song.  
It was strange, really. Jessie was sure she had never heard such a song, but as she listened to the hums, words formed in her mind. You know it's us team rocket and we fight for--she shuddered--what is wrong... Jessie knew Team Rocket too well. Madame Boss was her mother's strict employer. She ran an organization that tried to find out more about the world and pokemon, but they used rather unconventional and unlawful meathods. They used all their information to catch rare and valuable pokemon and sold them for a large profit.  
Madame Boss wanted all the pokemon, much like any pokemon trainer would. But the woman was different. Jessie didn't know much about Madame Boss, but she did know her son-Giovanni. He scared her. Madame Bosse's crazy ideas were one thing, but Giovanni seemed to have a severe lust for power.  
The girl had stopped humming. She turned and faced Jessie for a second or so, then she turned and ran.  
"Hey! Get back here!" Jessie yelled, chasing the kid. "Tell me where you heard that song!" Jessie stumbeled and found she had a face full of dirt. Standing up and brushing herself off, she looked around but the girl was nowhere in site.   
Jessie found that she had chased the kid into the park's flower garden, and she began to wander around. She loved flowers, and there was one in particular that she wanted to find. Sakura, Nadeshiko, Ayame, where was it? These flowers all seemed wrong...where was-ah! She saw it!  
Jessie ran over to a small bush near the center of the garden, and there it was. The most beautiful flower-Bara; the rose. It was the best kind of rose too. The red kind. It reminded her of......of...... what was it? It was right at the tip of her tongue. What was--?  
A blinding flash of light interrupted her daydream. "What the--?" Jessie yelled, ducking behind the rosebush. For a moment it looked like there was a rip in the air, and a hot blue aurora seeped through the hole. Then the light just seemed to dissolve and all that was left was someone who had not been there before. A young man; not tall, but not short. He had blue hair, and green eyes that looked around in wonder at his surroundings.   
Jessie wasn't sure how her mouth formed the word, but she heard herself say the name she had just been trying to remember. "James..."  
  
"The pokemon battle will be three on three!" the announcer boomed. Ash wasn't sure how he had gotten to a stadium-he guessed he had been teleported by that Kagami girl-but for once in his life he was not in the mood to battle. He had to rescue Misty.  
"The champion: Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town!" there was a roar of the audience.   
"Wow! I'm champion?" Ash asked aloud. Maybe this wasn't so bad...wait. He couldn't overlook the fact that he might be asleep again. Remembering that James had said that all he had to do was want to leave, he said sternly to no one in particular "I want to go, LET ME LEAVE!" Nothing happened, and the only person who seemed to have heard him was the referee, who was looking at him with a confused expression. Maybe this was real then?  
Oh no, how am I gonna get Misty out of there? I don't even know where I am, but it seems pretty real to me. "Excuse me but I have to get going-" he started off to the referee, but then the announcer shouted.  
"The challenger, Sabishii! Also from Pallet." Now that was weird. Pallet town was so small, Ash knew everyone there. But he didn't remember anyone named Sabishii...  
The girl stepped out and into view and Ash felt his throat close up, "K-K-Kagami?" the girl stared up at him.  
"No...that's not me. I know Kagami though...she has learned to use what I am." The girl replied. Her voice was a strange whisper, and she looked exactly like Kagami.  
"What you are? Are you the person that Kagami possessed to use her body?" Ash asked, a bit confused.  
"No. I have always been here, I have just taken on a form that your mind can recongnise," she said. Then she gave a smirk, and she spoke again. This time her voice was loud and gloating, "I can help you, or I can destroy you! Can you beat me little boy?" she chanted, holding up a pokeball.  
All sense of pride taking over, Ash yelled back, "Gimme your best shot!"  
"All right then..." her soft, know-it-all voice spoke. But then, louder, "LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"  
  
  
  
"What's wrong Misty?" Ash inquired after dinner.   
Misty quickly shook her head, "What? Nothing's wrong, really!" she found herself saying. "Look I gotta go, why don't you...um...go catch some pokemon-you can borrow my fishing rod."  
Ash nodded and left enthusiastically, because she had never let him even touch her super rod and her home made lures. But right now everything seemed worthless. Misty had been having a feeling that everything was out of place, but she couldn't find a thing wrong. Not a thing. Her world was perfect-so why did it bother her so much?   
"Oh what's wrong with me?" she whispered pathecitally to the air. "There's a big question that I just can't hear...I just can't figure this out..." Misty felt dispair weld up inside her, but she didn't want to cry. She just wanted to know......  
"Would you walk away?" a voice of asked softly, in a mix of accusation and worry.   
Misty jerked upward and spun around. Light flooded in from the doorway and all she see was the silhouette of somebody very small. "Who are you and what do you want?" Misty demanded, and the hostility in her voice even surprised her.  
"Would you walk away?" the person repeated, stepping out of the doorway to reveal that she was a small girl with blue hair. The child's eyes were closed, and her voice was a whisper.  
"What? Walk away from what?" Misty asked, not understanding.  
"From someone in trouble? Would you leave them alone if they were scared? If they where hurt?" her eyes opened, and they were a foggy blue, that seemed to penitrate Misty's spirit and read her mind, "If they were lonely?" she finished.  
Misty was shocked, "Of course I would! What kind of a person would I be if I didn't?"  
"Then why are you still here?" child continued. "Didn't you hear? Didn't you feel it?"  
"What are you talking about?" Misty asked.  
"The cry for help. Your cry for help"   
Misty didn't know what to say. She didn't physically need help, but she did feel like her spirit was crumbling-was that what this kid was talking about?  
"Anyway, it's all up to you. I'm going where you want to be." The girl said, she turned and left. She seemed to vanish into the white-hot light that was outside.  
"Wait!" Misty yelled, rushing after her. She seemed to bee running through mist. The girl was running at an amazing speed and suddenly there was a cracking noise. All around her, shards of glass were falling, and Misty was thrown down to land on a cold surface, covered in a thin sheer of snow.  
She panted hard, ".........Ash..."  
  
  
Well this was unexpected. James had thought he would end up in some big fancy palace, where men in bakini shorts waited hand and foot on Jessie. But he seemed to be in a flower garden at some park. Definitely unexpected.   
He looked around again. He seemed to have landed in the part of the garden where the roses grew. He would have liked to look around, but he had to find Jessie and get her out. Where was she?  
Looking over to his right, James saw a larger bush, full of red roses. "Might as well get one before I go," he said to himself as he walked over. Half way to the bush, he stopped short and listened. He had heard something, he was sure. There had been a humming sound, but now the tune was replaced with words.  
"You know it's us Team Rocket and we fight for what is wrong. We're tiered of our motto so we though we'd try song," came a clear, sweet, and very young voice.  
James blinked. The sound was coming from the rose bush. "Jessie?"  
Out from behind the plant, stepped a child. Red hair, blue eyes, an in her hand was a rose. She was just a bit younger than the girl he met at Pokemon Tech all those years ago. "James..."   
  
"Bulbasoar!" Ash cried in dispair as the pokemon fell. So far Cindiquil, Squirtle, and Bulbasoar had been KO-ed by Sabishii's Dragonite, Mew, and Lugia. She was the ultimate opponent; the kind of trainer that Ash wanted to be, but even he knew when he was beat, and the battle had been lost before it had begun. But he still had pokemon. He had his friends. This little child knew what was going on, she could help save Misty and the others. He just had to beat her. He didn't know why, he just had to.  
"Next I'll use Garadous to humiliate you with," Sabishii smiled sweetly and threw another pokeball. The blue dragon popped out and emitted a menacing roar, showing its iron-like teeth.   
Ash couldn't think of a single pokemon that would stand a chance against that monster, but he had to call out something. He began to think. Something small might be able to avoid the attacks long enough to tire Garadous out. "Chikorita, I choose you!" he cried, throwing out a pokeball. The plant type emerged, and happily rubbed against Ash's leg. "Now's not the time! This is a very important match!" Ash scolded. He couldn't deal with Chikorita's crush on him now.   
"Chi-ka!" the pokemon snapped defiantly as it faced the Garadous. The dragon gave a huff, and slammed it's tail on the ground. The mere force of it shook the arena and Chikorita lost balance and fell down.  
"Don't give up! Agility!" Ash called to the pokemon.  
Sabishii smirked, "Excellet stragaty. I like to play games like this. You haven't been a very good match yet, but maybe you'll make up for it." Ash didn't like her tone. "Garadous, hyper beam."  
  
  
She saw him. It was really him, not a mind trick; she could see it in his eyes. And right then, when she recognized him, a horrible weight seemed to lift off her shoulders. It was like having a nightmare that was so horribly real, and waking up full of relief finding it was only a dream. This life she had just been living seemed to diminish, and she felt like herself again. She could remember everything now. "James!" she cried again, just happy to see him and she ran over and hugged him. She was very surprised to find that she wasn't even as tall as his waist, but he knelt down and held her tightly.   
She could hear the word's "You're back! You woke up!" in her ear as she tightly clung to him. She could remember being so scared over the past few days, and she hadn't been able to hug James as was her usual response to fear.  
"Yeah..." she said, wriggling out of his grasp so she could face him. He knelt on the ground for she hardly came past his knee if he stood. "I woke up, but...." She looked around. The garden, her hometown, and the body of her childhood self that she was trapped in. "I think we're still trapped in my dream."   
"Yeah..." he nodded. He was still smiling happily though, glad things were sort of getting back to normal. "Are you ok?"  
She scowled and stepped on his foot. "I'm less than three feet tall, of course I'm no ok!" she shouted.   
But he only laughed, "I never thought I'd miss you hitting me," he grinned.   
"Come on," she sighed, grinning. "Let's find a way out of here, and you can fill me in on a few things."  
  
  
Misty gasped as she looked around. She was in a large cavern and the ground was littered with broken glass. There were two large objects in the room. Two crystal capsules shone in the erie blue light, and inside were people. "I wonder what's going on..." she thought our loud. She walked up to one of the chambers to get a better look at who was inside. She couldn't believe her eyes. "Team Rocket?" she yelled in shock. Jessie and James seemed to float inside the crystal. For a moment she just stared, wondering what was going on, but then she remembered that other crystal.  
Rushing over to it, she peered inside and winced as what she had feared was true. Ash was inside. He floated within the glassy crystal, pokeball in hand. Floating near him was Chickorita. "ASH! CHICKORITA! CAN YOU HEAR ME?" she yelled into the glass, but he didn't stir. Was he...? No, that couldn't be it. He wasn't dead. No. "ASH! COME BACK!" she yelled in dispair at the glass. Dead or alive, something was keeping her from him. She couldn't seem to break through. "Please...come back......"  
  
The hyper beam attack came down on the spot where chickorita stood, but at the very last second it dogged the blast. However the pure force of the attach still sent Chickorita to the ground. But it hurriedly got up again. The garadous didn't look the least bit tired. "Arrggh this is hopeless!" Ash yelled, and Garadous's tail missed Chickorita by mere inches as it slammed down.  
"Lucky, lucky, lucky." Sabishii chanted in a droning voice. "But that will do you no good. Look." She motioned to Chickorita, "Your pokemon is tired, and you can't beat garadous. Surrender."   
Ash gritted his teeth. "No!" he yelled. He didn't know why, but he had to win. He just had to. And then he thought he heard something. It was so faint it was almost like the wind carrying a whisper. "Ash...come back..."   
"Misty?" he questioned. Looking around, he didn't see her. Come back, she had said. Come back from where? Ash didn't know where he was. There were two possibilities: 1. he was dreaming and having a hilucination, 2. he had been teleported somewhere. Ash had suspected the latter, but now he was starting to think that he just might be asleep. But Misty was there, at least she was somewhere-safe. She was safe and he could get back to her. All he had to do was win this battle...  
As Ash's hope rose, the Garadous's attacks weren't as powerful. It moved slower than before; little Chickorita and the giant dragon were starting to level off in terms of power. "That's strange..." Ash thought aloud. Maybe the Garadous was just tiered...but it didn't matter. Now it was all up to the pokemon's skill, intelligence, and will. The battle was just beginning.  
  
  
James told Jessie about the cave that they were in, told her that she was really trapped inside crystal, told her Meowth was safe, told her about the twerp's dream (she laughed for a long time over the 'I love Ash' t-shirt), he told her everything, but she didn't take some of it very well.  
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE WANT'S TO POSSESS ME!? Just 'cause she's not happy living in some poor kid's body, doesn't mean she can have mine!" she yelled, full of outrage. "This body is mine! Well, wait a second," she rethought as she remembered how tall she was. "the body that's asleep is mine!" Jessie crossed her arms and cursed under her breath. James had gone into a train of thought that was quickly interrupted by Jessie. "AHHHH! I just thought of something!"  
James jumped in surprise at her scream. "What?" he asked. She looked really panicked. And looked up at him with wide, fearful eyes.  
"This is a dream..." she said shakily. "My...body is asleep. I can't defend myself. This Kagami person could posses me anytime she wanted..." Jessie stared straight ahead, but not really seeing anything. She didn't act angry as he had suspected. She was in total shock, and fell on her knees on the grass.   
"Look Jess," James said, doing he best to be supportive. "She hasn't figured out how to possess you yet. She was yelling about it earlier."  
"Really?" Jessie said, hope daring to show in her voice. "but why? I thought she could do that. She took over the kid's body, why am I different?"  
"I dunno..." James thought back, trying to remember what Kagami had said.  
  
~~~"As soon as I realized that her state would allow me to take over her, I tried to do so. It didn't work. I found by searching her soul deeper that something was...missing."  
"Missing? What do ya mean?"  
"As she is, her soul is incomplete."  
"What?"  
"I cannot posses a soul with a piece missing, but you... Have what I need."  
"What do you mean?"   
"Part of her soul...is buried inside yours."~~~  
  
Well if anything in the world made absolutely zero sense, that was it. James had no idea what was wrong with Jessie's soul, but it didn't matter if that kept her safe.  
"How do I wake up?" Jessie said suddenly. Her voice was low and determined; her hands were clenched into fists.   
"I...don't know," James answered. "Before, all you had to do was want to wake up, but that didn't work for me with Jessibelle."   
"Oh believe me, I want to wake up!" Jessie growled from the grass. "This is all hopeless..."  
  
  
"And what exactly do you want?" Kagami asked in a mocking voice from atop a large, glowing rock in the center of the room.   
"I want to know who you are, what you are doing to these poor people, and why!" Kakumei snapped, hot with anger. But she had to retain her composure, as well as keep Meowth form charging at the small child. Although she was sure meowth could take a kid, the inhuman voice emitting from the small child made Kakumei defensive. She was sure this was not what she had anticipated.  
And as to prove her point, the blue-haired-freak-of-a-psychic-kid jumped off the stone (which was about 20 feet in the air) and hovered at Kakumei's eye level. "I am nothing your primitive mind can even dream of understanding, but you may address me as Kagami. It seems that you humans need to name everything."  
"Primitive mind? Try me," Kakumei bit out. She was only fifteen and she was already had a PHD in pokemon science. She considered being called primitive, even by what appeared to be a higher form of life, a severe insult. But perhaps she was primitive, for the cavewoman inside her wanted to rip this kids guts out. However the portion of her with the PHD was holding her back, just barely though.  
"Meowth knows what ya are!" Meowth chirped from her heel, surprising her. Kagami turned, and seemed to notice the cat for the first time.  
"A talking pocket monster?" she said, amused. "And what is it that you think I am?" She spoke to Meowth like he was a child.  
"You're a pokemon."  
  
Ash winced as Totodile feinted. He recalled the pokeomon, as Sabishii gave a chuckle. "You're finished, you know," she said, a sickingly-sweet tone in her voice. Her Houndoon seemed to chuckle as it barked. It was her last pokemon, and Ash was down to his sixth as well.  
"Not true," Ash replied. This was risky, but his last hope. "I still have..." realizing he hadn't been doing this lately, he pulled back the rim of his hat, struck a pose, and threw a pokeball. "PICKACHU! I CHOOSE YOU!"  
The ball bounced on the ground, then opened with a bright flash and Pikachu appeared. For a moment, Ash was worried that Pikachu still didn't know where it was, and would try to shock him like back at the infirmary. But Pikachu stood on the field, dazed for a moment as this new hallucination was entered into its mind. It was no longer like a scared and savage wild pokemon, it was Ash's pokemon once again. But it still believed that the battle it was fighting was real.   
"Go Pikachu! Let's show this little kid who's boss!" Ash yelled, and Pikachu obediently entered the ring, ready to fight.  
Sabishii looked rather annoyed. "Do I seriously seem like someone who's gonna get beaten by an electric rodent?" demanded flatly.  
Ash smiled, "Oh believe me, you'll have to be good to beat Pikachu. He's no ordinary pokemon." Pikachu nodded in agreement and sparks flew from its cheeks as it charged up. "Go Pikachu, agility now!"  
Pikachu and the Houndoom seemed to be evenly matched in speed. But Pikachu was looking tired. If Houndoom slowed down first, then Pikachu could get it, but if it went the other way around... "Come on Pikachu, quick attack!"  
"Evade Houndoom," Sabishii said calmly. And houndoom evaded the attack easily.   
Ash gritted his teeth. Pikachu was running out of energy. If he was going to beat her, then it had to be done now, and it had to be done right.  
"Pikachu!" Ash called to the pokemon. "Thunder attack now," he ordered. Houndoom was still running at a blinding speed. "You can do it!!!" and with that, Houndoom tripped and the thunder bolt hit the dog pokemon, causing it to feint.  
"Well...it seems that I've lost...this round anyway," Sabishii admitted. Then all at once, the stadium seemed to evaporate. He, Pikachu, and Sabishii seemed to be standing in nothing but a white-hot mist. "What's going on? Who and or what are you?" Ash demanded of the little girl.  
"I...am something that everyone knows. But in this form you did not recognize me," She said, putting a hand on her chest to refer to herself. "I am loneliness. I am nothing but an emotion that was given shape by your subconscious. I tend to disappear in your dreams, but I drown out hope in your nightmares."  
Ash did not know how to respond to this. "Loneliness..." he repeated, trying to force it to make sense.  
"This Kagami person. She puts you into a dream like state, and then makes you face your fears. But where does fear come from? It comes from me. And I am part of you. I'm part of everyone. I can never be truly defeated, but you can only set me back with one weapon."  
"Weapon?" Ash thought. Kagami was unbeatable, but could this weapon do the trick? "Where can I find it?"  
"You know."  
"No I don't! I can't think of a single place a weapon-"  
"That's your problem. You're using your mind. It analyses things into forms of logic. It tells you that you are lonely, forcing your spirit to dwindle. If you used you heart instead of your mind, then you would understand. But you silly humans need an explanation for everything. It'll be the death of your friends, and even you too. And when they are gone, you'll see me again." She gave a throaty laugh, and evaporated like the stadium did. The mist vanished, and Ash and Pikachu were back in the cave.  
  
"Ash! ASH! Are you ok? What happened?" Misty had seen the crystal pod shatter and Ash was left standing on the ground with pikachu. Both stared straight ahead, not moving.  
Ash slowly turned around to face her. "Misty?"  
"YEAH! I'M MISTY," She yelled at him, pronouncing every syllable as if he were deaf and dumb. "YOU ARE ASH. UNDERSTAND?"  
She saw his eyebrow twitch. "Of course I understand! I know who I am!!!" he yelled.  
"Then what was up with you just now?" Misty asked. "Come on Ash, you look worried, tell me what's wrong."   
Ash gave took a deep breath and looked more serious than usual. It was kind of creeping Misty out. "We're all gonna die if we don't fight this battle the right way. But...I don't know how to win."  
Misty wasn't sure what to make of that. Had he gone nuts in that coffin? She put her hands on his shoulders. "Um...Ash, maybe you should sit down and get a drink of water or something."   
"I'm not sick, Misty!" he yelled. Surprised, she backed away.  
"What happened to you?" she asked. She was very worried now.  
"I had a hard battle..." he began, telling her what had happened when he had been asleep.  
  
"A pokemon?" Kakuemi asked. It surprised her more than she thought it would. Her first guess when she, Ash, and James had been making plans to defeat the psychic source was that it was probably a pokemon. She had even brought along an ultra ball just in case. But a little girl was not what she was expecting... "What kind of pokemon are you? There are human shaped pokemon...but you look just like a real human child!"  
"Don't judge a book by it's cover; she's no kid!" A voice rang from behind. Kakumei and Meowth spun around to see Ash running towards them with pikachu on his shoulder and Misty at his heels.  
Kakumei felt a headache coming on. She put her fingers to her temples in frustration. "Will some one please tell me what's going on here!?"   
"Very well..." Kagami said in that calm voice that made Kakumei's skin crawl. "But your not what I need right now." She snapped her fingers and the caveren started to shake.   
"What's going on? Meowth don't wanna get buried in no cave in!" Meowth yelped, clinging onto Kakumei's shin.  
"You made plan A fall through, little humans..." Kagami chanted, hovering up to her post on the glowing rock once more.  
"Who are you calling little?" Kakumei spat out, unable to come up with a better insult."  
"By ruining my first plan though, you've only make it worse for yourselves," Kagami continued. Through a doorway, one of the crystal pods came hovering in. Inside were a blue haired man, and a red haired woman. "The coup de grace was always one of my favorite moves, and it's time to take this one through the heart."   
(A/N coup de grace is a fencing move, when you drive the sword through the heart of the opponent)  
  
  
"James!" Jessie stood frozen in place. One shaking hand was outstretched and pointing ahead of her.  
"What is it?" James asked, looking where she was pointing.   
"The color...it's draining out of everything...and I think I can see through those trees."  
James looked and she was right. This was like when he got away from Jessibelle. "We're gonna wake up! The crystal is loosing stability!"  
  
  
"OW!"   
"That hurt..."  
"What do you mean? YOU landed on ME!"  
"Oh, sorry."  
The crystal had shattered, and seeing as it was a few feet off the ground, and there were two people inside it, Jessie and James were in a tangle. As Jessie nursed her sore arm, she looked around.   
There were the twerps, and a brunette that she hadn't met but knew because she had been in her dream. Her name was Kakumei if she remembered right. She recognized the room as the last place she had dreamed of (well, it had been real, but a dream to Jessie). They were just about thirty or so feet from the entrance to the cave. But between them and the doorway was a large, glowing rock and on top of it was a little girl.   
Jessie was sure she had seen the child before. Was that the same kid that had been in the garden? It sure looked like her, but this kid seemed different somehow... Was that the Kagami person James had told her about? Probably.   
"Are you two ok?" Ash asked them, and this surprised her. But then she remembered that the twerp had been traveling with them in her dream... there was a lot of stuff in her dream she wanted to ask about. It was a disturbing thought to know that everything she had dreamed was real, and she had thought she was just five the whole time.  
"Yeah we're ok," James answered. "What's going on?"  
"THAT'S MY QUESTION!" Kakumei yelled to the kid on the rock; she looked like she was having a migraine.   
A childish, but heartless laughter came from the child and she spoke. "Well now... it looks like everything is ready. Except, that is, for this one minor detail," the child was directing that last part at her. Jessie was sure it was that Kagami, for that voice certainly wasn't human. It was the voice from her nightmare.  
"What? You're going to possess me?" Jessie yelled back. It was time to play tough, something she did pretty well. "I hear you can't, is that right?"  
Kagami looked annoyed, and Jessie knew she was right.  
"Such a pitty too," she continued. "I'm sure you would have loved to look as perfect as I do."  
"There's a good point," Kakumei spoke up. "It seems to me that with all that power of yours, it doesn't matter what form you take. So...why want to possess Jessie? I think you're just vein."  
Jessie managed to give her best conceited laugh, "So you don't like being in the body of a kid? Too short?"  
"A pokemon suffering from a Napoleon complex!" Meowth joined in, laughing.   
"SILANCE!" Kagami shouted. Jessie shrunk backwards as the large stone glowed brightly, along with the girl standing on it who was obviously peeved. "You will regret mocking me...you will regret it for a long time..."  
Jessie was blinded by a hot, blue light coming towards her. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to get her angry...   
  
  
"Well that was brilliant! Just brilliant!" Ash shouted at Kakumei. He would have expected Team Rocket to do something as stupid as mock a psychic pokemon, but not a doctor. "What in the world were you thinking, helping it get mad?"   
Kakumei sat Indian-style on the ground with her arms crossed and looking quite proud of herself. "It was actually a pretty good strategy..." she began.  
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT WAS A GOOD STRATAGY!?" Ash bellowed. He even surprised himself with how angry he was.  
Kakumei glared at him. "Don't talk back to me!" she ordered in a low vice as she stood up. Funny, she seemed a lot taller then him when she was mad. "As I was saying, it was a good strategy. You remember when Kagami hit Jessie with that overload of psychic waves and she collapsed and was temporarily back to normal?"   
Ash nodded. He remembered James telling him and Kakumei about that.  
"Well," she continued. "Despite her power, Kakumei is using a human body. And human bodies need to rest. When she got mad, Kagami's power flared up. If we can avoid her wrath for long enough, she'll have drained up all her energy and maybe then we can stop her."  
Oh sure, it didn't sound bad when you put it that way. "All right," Ash agreed. "But speaking of Kagami, where is she?" Ash looked around only to notice for the first time that they were no longer in the cavern. He was standing in a field, and it was nighttime. The ground, the grass, and the forest nearby all had a dark and somewhat menacing quality that he didn't like. "Hey! Where are we?"  
"Hmmmm...... I expect that light put us in another dream," Kakumei answered. Then she clapped her hands together and happily added, "That's great!"  
Ash couldn't help falling down in frustration. "Why is this great!?"   
"Ya see, the fact that were in another dream instead of dead, means that Kagami doesn't know what to do with us yet," Kakumei explained. "And the fact that we're in our right state of mind means that she's already too low on power to make us hallucinate."  
Well she sure had a weird way of looking on the bright side of things, but that didn't matter now. Where was everyone else? "Misty! Team Rocket! Are you here?" Ash called.  
"Over here!" came Misty's voice in reply. She didn't sound far off, but it was too dark to see very far.  
After a lot of groping around blindly, Ash and Kakumei were able to make out the group, and ran over.  
"Everybody ok?" Kakumei called while still running.  
"No," James answered as they reached him and the others. "Jessie's asleep again."   
Ash looked and he saw Jessie lying limply against James. Meowth was on her lap looking worried and Misty was splashing some water from poliwag on Jessie's face with no avail. "But I thought we were already asleep, right?" Ash asked Kakuemi. If they were in a dream world, it was safe to assume they were asleep.  
"Uh oh," Kakumei muttered as she checked Jessie's pulse.   
"Uh oh what?" James demanded forcefully, but there was a hint of fear in his voice he was obviously trying to hide.  
"Her pulse is way to erratic for her to just be unconscious," Kakumei answered, then turned to Ash. "Remember when I said that Kagami was too low on power to make us hallucinate?"  
"Yeah..."   
"Well, maybe she's not low on power. Maybe she's using her power for something else..."  
  
  
  
~~~~What is it that makes you so hard to get to?~~~~  
"What?"  
~~~~The world is too hard on you; you need to forget...~~~~  
"What are you talking about?" Jessie felt dizzy. She kept hearing that voice, it was resonating all around her...  
~~~~You can forget when you sleep...~~~~  
"What? Forget what?"  
~~~~Your mother is dead, your father left you, and so did all those you fell in love with... Nobody can care about you; you are a curse.~~~~  
Maybe that was true... Jessie never had much luck in the love department.  
~~~~You can't be loved, don't you want to escape this cruel fate?~~~~  
"Well...I suppose..."  
~~~~You can forget when you sleep...you can escape...~~~~  
"Escape..."  
~~~~Go to sleep...let your emotions go so you can be free...~~~~  
She was feeling kinda tiered...  
~~~~Love can't hurt you when you dream...~~~~  
That was true, and just a nap couldn't hurt...  
~~~~That's right, you deserve rest. Escape from your misfortune; escape from love...~~~~  
****Why can you say about love?****  
~~~~What?~~~~  
"What?"  
****You don't understand what emotions are; you just use them as a weapon****  
That was a different voice; Jessie was sure of it.  
~~~~Emotions would get in my way if I didn't use them properly~~~~  
What were they arguing about?  
****Emotions can be your friend if you did use them properly****  
~~~~Emotions are mere human flaws, only the mind counts and I am superior in that~~~~  
****The mind is nothing compared to the heart and spirit! You would know that if you had either!****  
~~~~You think you can win?~~~~  
****It's all a game to you isn't it?****  
~~~~I enjoy games. Logic and tactics is how you solve any problem. Games use those points, which is why I...always win~~~~  
****I'll win this round****  
~~~~You lost each game; you should give up~~~~  
****I won't. I'll win this round.****  
~~~~What makes you think so?~~~~  
****Instinct.****  
~~~~Ah, I've heard of that. Hunters use that often. Do you wish the next game to be a hunt?~~~~  
****What?****  
That didn't sound good, Jessie felt suddenly cold.  
~~~~Very well, but I'll play later. I have work to do now.~~~~  
****Work?****  
~~~~Did that girl scare you with her foolish talk? She doesn't understand your pain.~~~~  
The voice was all around her once more, making her drowsy.  
~~~~She is something you should forget. She is too cruel. She doesn't know pain like you do. She doesn't need to rest, like you do.~~~~  
****I don't know pain? After what you put me through?****  
~~~~She speaks in lies. You shouldn't hear such talk; go to sleep.~~~~  
Jessie felt warm all over. It was relaxing, and it pulled her eyes closed. "Sleep..." she repeated numbly.  
****I don't lie, and this is the truth: I'll win this round.****  
~~~~Sleep now...~~~~  
****I'll win this round.****  
~~~~Sleep...~~~~  
****I will win!****  
The warmth was suddenly gone and Jessie felt more uncomfortable than relaxed.  
~~~~So...you blocked me out. Fine then, you think you'll win? I'll start that game now; the hunt. We can just see who wins when I hunt down those in my nightmare world!~~~~   
Jessie felt a rush of air and she couldn't hear the first voice anymore. Hunting? Was that what it had said? Hunt who? She had a bad feeling she already knew who it was.   
****There now, it's safe. Open your eyes.****  
  
"What was that?" Misty asked nervously. Ash had heard it too; it had been a howl. He looked around nervously but saw nothing.  
"Eep!" he heard Kakumei make a squeaking noise and turned to her. She was pointing upwards at cliff. And covering the cliff were dozens of Houndoom. The dogs glared at him and his companions unforgivingly as they bared their teeth. These were not like that pack of houndour that he had helped; these dogs were just evil. Ordinarily Ash didn't believe that there was such thing as a bad pokemon, but this was NOT an ordinary situation. Kagami had made these pokemon, and had made them ruthless.  
"What are we gonna do, Ash?" Misty asked from a little behind them.  
"I say, we run!" he yelled and took off. Misty and Kakumei followed behind him, and James who was holding Jessie took up the rear. Meowth had somehow gotten ahead of him and was leading the way with his cat eyes that were made for the dark.  
"Come on, move faster!" Ash called back to the group.   
"Maybe we should split up! Ash, are you listening?" Kakumei called up to him.  
"Yeah, I heard you." He looked ahead and saw they were heading for the forest. The houndoom were picking up their pace and James gave a yelp as one drew near. "Ok, we're splitting up!"  
Kakumei ran straight, after Meowth, James was carrying Jessie to the right, and Ash grabbed Misty's wrist and pulled her left and they took off. The houndoom separated, about a dozen following each pair. As Ash looked back at the Houndoon he remembered that James couldn't run that fast while carrying Jessie. He was probably going to regret this later but... "Pikachu!" he called to the mouse. "Go help Jessie and James!"   
"Pi-ka," Pikachu nodded and made a U turn. It jumped through the low tree limbs and over the Houndoom's heads.   
"Ash are you sure that was a good idea?" Misty panted as they swerved to avoid a tree.   
"No, but I'm not letting anybody die."  
  
  
  
James panted as he ran; he couldn't keep up this pace for much longer. The Houndoom were snapping at his heels and he felt like giving up. But then one of the dogs jumped and just missed biting Jessie's leg. That made him angry enough to gain a boost of speed, but he was only a few feet in front of the savage pokemon.  
"Jessie," he yelled over the barking of the dogs. "This is a good time to wake up." But of course she didn't. And it was just his luck too, for there in front of him was a stone wall that formed the base of a cliff. It was too steep to climb, and even if it wasn't he wasn't about to feed Jessie to the dogs. He was trapped.  
~~~~"So...you have to promise me, PROMISE me, that when she comes back you'll tell her."~~~~ He could hear Jessie's (the five year old one) voice ringing in his ear. He reached the end of the trail and stood with his back to the wall, the houndoom had slowed to a trot for it seemed that they wanted to put his last moments in slow torture. He looked down at Jessie, still asleep, and remembering his promise to the child that had occupied her. And now she was back with him, but she was asleep.   
Sure he could tell her he loved her now, but she wouldn't hear it. In his mind he had thought the words 'I love you Jessica' but he had never said them out loud. He wanted Jessie to hear the first time he said those words, so he wasn't going to say it while she was asleep. But still... they were in a dream reality, but he could still remember the pain of Jessiebelle's whip; that pain was real, so that meant if he could get hurt in a dream, he could just as easily die in a nightmare.  
Die without telling her... he didn't want it to end like this.  
The largest Houndoom was only four or so feet from him. It let out a low menacing growl and jumped at James. He hugged the sleeping Jessie; hugging her was what he always did when he was afraid, and it seemed to offer the tiniest bit of comfort, but not enough to keep him from screaming like a girl.  
He waited with his eyes closed shut for about ten seconds when he realized that it shouldn't take ten seconds for a pokemon to do something as simple as jumping. James cautiously opened one eye, and then both eyes bulged open in surprise.   
There in from of him was a charred houndoom, and standing protectively between him and the rest of the pack, was Pikachu.  
"Pikachu?" James stuttered out.  
"Pi-ka!" the mouse nodded cheerily. Only THAT rodent could be so happy in such a situation, but it still wasn't a match for eleven Houndoom, or was it? That rat seemed pretty confident.  
James watched as Pikachu thundered two more Houndoom as they charged, teeth showing. The other dark pokemon were now getting the idea and instead of charging straight on, they began with a display of agility. Five of the remaining pack of nine ran around, their forms blurred by their speed. Distressed, pikachu blindly shot its thunder in various directions, only lucky enough to bring down one more dog. That left eight to go.  
  
  
"Ash!" Misty called from behind him. She had begun to loose speed and Ash had to drag her along by the wrist. "I can't run anymore; Ash let's stop and try to battle them!"   
"No we have to get them as tiered out as possible before we try our pokemon, Misty! Just keep running!"   
"Ash! They are not slowing down!" Misty yelled as a Houndoon snapped at her shorts. "Eeep! ASH DO SOMETHING BEFORE WE'RE DINNER!"  
Ash risked looking behind him while running and saw that Misty was right and those dogs were not going to slow down any time soon. And he didn't think he or Misty could run much longer. Suddenly there was a loud howl from one of the dogs and it jumped, the others following suit. That was NOT good.  
"We are dead mea-ack! Ash what are you doing!?" Misty cried as he yanked hard on her wrist, causing her to trip. He caught her mid fall an jumped to down and rolled away just as the dogs landed where they had been standing. Not bad; he hadn't expected that to work. The Houndoom had landed in a tangled mess.  
"Wow Ash, good move." Said Misty, amazed.  
"Yeah, I thought so!"  
"Ok, now get off of me."  
"Huh? Oh, sorry," Ash managed to get out as he realized he had landed on Misty. He got up quickly and pulled her to her feet just as the Houndoom recovered and were ready to start chasing some more. "Come on, Misty, time to get moving," he said, starting to run again. She gave a moan of disgust and followed, the dogs snapping at her heels.  
The trail had turned uphill and they ran for a few more minutes until their path ended. The trail suddenly turned into a large, impossible drop as they reached the edge of the cliff they had been running up. They were trapped.  
"Ash..." Misty panted out as she caught her breath. "There is no...way we can make...a jump like that and...the houndoom...have caught up so...we're trapped."  
"I can see that Misty, and now would be a good time to call out those pokemon," he yelled, taking the pokeballs from his belt and throwing them. "I choose everybody!"  
  
  
"Ah! Not you again!" Jessie screamed, backing away from the little girl. She had opened her eyes to find that she was in a well-lit place, full of brightly colored clouds. It was like standing in the middle of a sunset. However she had also found the source of the voice that had awoken her. It was a little girl with blue eyes and blue hair pulled into braided pigtails. Kagami.   
"Wait, please let me explain!" the girl shouted, lifting up her hand. Jessie noticed that her voice was not that eerie, nonhuman tone that she had heard from Kagami before. This voice was very childlike, and matched the body of the speaker.  
"Explain? Ha! You want to put me back in some coma so you can possess me or whatever it is you do!" Jessie retorted. She remembered Meowth joking about a pokemon and a Napoleon complex. Meowth had called Kagami a pokemon? Was she?  
"I'm not going to try to posses you! Your mixing me up with that poke-freak! I'm not Kagami!" The girl yelled in a desperate tone.  
"Oh?" Jessie asked sarcastically. "And how many freaky blue-haired kids are running around?"  
The child bit he lip. "Three that I know of."  
Jessie fell down in frustration. This was truly insane and very confusing. "What?" she managed to get out.   
"Well..." the kid said, and held out her hand with one finger straight up. "First, there's me. I'm the original. It's my body that Kagami has been using."   
Jessie blinked. She wanted to say something but found that she could not think of a thing to say that would come out coherent. So she blinked. Yes, blinking was a good choice.  
The little girl held up a second finger. "Second, there's Kagami. She isn't human; she's a strange pokemon that possessed me years ago and she's using my body so she looks like me."  
Well at least that made a *little* sense.   
The girl held up a third finger. "Then there's another one who looks like me, but she goes by the name Sabishii. She doesn't even have a real form, she just uses my appearance for some reason. She isn't human or pokemon, she is an emotion."   
And what had once made sense was down the toilet.  
The girl continued. "She is the emotion of loneliness, and she can only have a physical shape when she is in a dream. For some reason, she appears to those in dream crystals using my form so she also looks like me."  
Jessie decided that blinking, combined with "huh?" was her best answer. Then she remembered seeing a little girl in that garden in her dream. Was that the Sabishii person?   
"Look I can't really explain it any better. Look at it like a TV show: Kagami is the psychotic "bad-guy" in this and oh yeah Kagami was that other voice I was fighting with, I'm the hostage, Sabishii is the "super weapon" and you and your friends are the heroes," the girl chirped happily.  
Riiight. That made perfect sense. Jessie sighed. This was going nowhere and was just working her brain a little too hard. "Super weapon?" she repeated, remembering what the girl had said. "And that other voice...it said something about hunting and...a super weapon...?" she was beginning to feel very panicked. That voice said it was going to hunt down the people in the dream world; was it talking about James and Meowth and everyone else? What if James got killed... she had to warn him!  
"Don't worry, I'm here to help you," the girl said, sitting down. "If we play this right, we can all win! Well...except Kagami, but it's about time she lost!"   
Jessie clenched her fists as she felt her blood get hotter. "What is it with you people and games!?" she yelled. "That's all I ever hear from you! That other voice, said something about hunting! And you...you kept saying that you would win, over and over! Well I have news for you! This isn't a game it's a serious matter of life and death and it is most definitely NOT a time to play!"  
The startled girl took a step backward as Jessie ranted. "I know that, but Kagami is strange. She sees everything as one big game...one big mess of logic and tactics, full of winners and losers. This is a mind game, and it's her mind game. That's why she always wins." The little child was talking frantically and her voice had risen.  
"Kagami doesn't even have a shape!" she continued. "She is just mental energy-a phantom pokemon! You can't kill her unless she takes a form; that is, her OWN form. You could go out there and kill my body but she would still be alive."   
"I...but..." Jessie tried to say something, but nothing seemed to work. She tried blinking again, but that also got her nowhere. "It doesn't really matter what she is." She said slowly. "If she wants a game, fine. We'll play. We just need to find a way to beat her."  
"That's what I'm saying!" the kid cried, excited that Jessie was finally complying.  
Jessie held up a hand. "But," she continued, "I have to get my friends back first. Now where am I and how do I get out?"  
"You're not really here."  
Ok, time to blink. "Say wha--?"  
The kid sighed and said, "You know how when a person dreams, and sometimes it's like they left their body? Well it's sorta like that with you. Your body is in a large dream coffin with the rest of your friends, but your mind is inside a different crystal with me."  
"Oh that's just great!" Jessie growled. "I couldn't even get out of one crystal, and now I gotta get out of two!?" she slapped her forehead and tried to think but this whole mess defied everything she had ever learned or experienced. "Do you know a way out?"  
The child looked solemn, and nodded. "Yes."  
"Great! How do I leav- hey wait a second!" a thought had just occurred to Jessie. "If you know how to get out, why don't you?"  
The girl shook her head. "I can't leave unless Kagami gets out of my body."   
Jessie paced around for a second or two and then brightened as a thought came to her. "Ok, kid, what's your name?"  
"Uh...it's Hikaru."  
Jessie gave that twist-grin that she was famous for. She liked her smile; it made her look devious. "All right then, Hikaru, listen up. I just got a brilliant idea!" and it didn't involve a hole-trap this time.   
  
  
"This is bad! This is very, very bad!" Kakumei whined, making Meowth's ears hurt. Her last pokemon, the Butterfree, had just been knocked out. The girl sank to her knees and began to cry like a scared little kid. All self control lost, "I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!"  
Now in a better situation Meowth would have tried a more therapeutic approach, but with the Houndoom advancing quickly this was no time for sympathy.  
So he fury-swiped her; hey, it works on Jessie and James. "Meowth! Dis ain't no time for a panic attack! Snap out of it and let's get moving; yous is supposed to be da professional!"  
Kakumei gripped her face, "Ow! That hurt!" she took a deep breath and looked at the houndoom. "Ok, time to get moving." She grabbed Meowth and charged deeper into the forest with the Houndoom on her tail (well, more likely Meowth's tail). "Agghhhh... I can't believe I broke down like that!" she said after a few minutes of running.  
Meowth was getting a bumpy ride, clinging to her shoulder, and was feeling a bit sick. "Well ya gots to get yourself togeadda or we'll be dinner!"  
"Yeah, let's get out of here before I loose it." Meowth looked back at the Houndoom; they didn't seem to be tiered at all, and Kakumei was panting.  
"Hey Meowth."  
"What?"  
"How did you know...that Kagami was a pokemon?" Kakumei asked, almost knocking Meowth off his post as she turned a corner sharply.  
"Well... to tell da truth...Meowth don't know how. I guess I just had a feelin'."  
Kakumei smiled as another part of her research was confirmed. "A sixth sense."  
"What? Hey! Meowth don't see dead people!" was she trying to insult him?  
"Oh never mind," Kakmuei said, frustration in her voice. "We're the dead ones if we can't out run these Houndoom!"  
  
  
  
  
"You sure this will work?" Hikaru questioned.  
Jessie grumpily folded her arms. The plan had sounded so much easier in her head. Of course anything sounds easy if you put the words 'All you have to do is...' in front of it. "It'd better, unless you have any ideas."  
"I think my ideas are even worse."  
Ok then it was settled. They would use Jessie's plan. She had to admit she was scared that it wouldn't work. It wasn't that the idea wasn't brilliant-all her idea's are brilliant after all!-it was the fact that no matter how wonderful, her ideas always seem to blow in her and the rest of the team's faces.  
Plus, this plan wasn't half as simple as: dig a hole and catch pikachu with rubber gloves when the twerps fall in. This plan was much more difficult, and there was hardly a margin for error. And then there was the factor that she couldn't carry the plan out unless she was out of the dream pod. That was-her *body* had to be out of the pod, and her mind remain inside.   
The plan was to lure Kagami into the mind's pod so Hikaru could get back to her body. Then Jessie would quickly have to get back into her own body, but Kagami was faster, being only energy. So timing was of the up most importance.   
She had to stay conscious inside this pod, with Hikaru, but she would be trapped unless her body was out in the real world. According to Hikaru, her mind and body were in a separated state, with her body in the crystal pod with James and the others, and her mind in Hikaru's pod. She couldn't communicate with them unless she returned to her body, but that would ruin the plan, so she would just count on them to get her body out of that crystal or else there was no hope.  
  
  
"I suppose," James moaned as Wheezing feinted, "that with my current run on luck, if you blasted me off I would land in another pack of Houndoom anyway."   
"Piiiiiikaaaaachuuuuuuu......" the pokemon stated shakily. It had run out of electricity anyway. There was only one Houndoom left, and pikachu had nothing left to fight it with. It had no energy or electricity and it lay limply in the sleeping Jessie's lap, watching the other pokemon fight with no success.   
Wheezing was now useless, and being a plant type verses fire, Victribeel had feinted right away. Now James had no pokemon left to fight with unless...  
He reached down and grabbed Jessie's pokeballs. "Arbok, Wabbafet (A.N. I can't spell that thing's name) go!"  
The two pokemon appeared out of the white light and were ready to battle. Arbok immediately launched a poison sting that hit the houndoom and seemed to slow it down a little-but not much. "Wabbafet, use your counter attack when it uses flamethrower. Try not to let anything hit us!" the pokemon nodded. "Arbok, try acid!"  
"Charr!" Arbok spitted out the venomous acid and burned the houndoom's left flank. That was good. If they got past it they could probably outrun it now.   
"Pii-ka pi pi?" pikachu said. James thought it sounded like a question so he asked.  
"What?"  
Pikacuh pointed to Arbok and then to Jessie, and then to James and back to Arbok.   
"Are you trying to ask why Arbok listens to me if I'm not it's trainer?"  
"Chu!" pikachu nodded.   
James smiled slightly. "It's a matter of trust. You obey that twerpy read head don't you?"   
Pikachu seemed to consider this and nodded as it understood.  
  
  
"Psyduck!" Misty yelled, hitting her pokemon with a stick. "You *whack* have to *whack* get a headache!"  
"Psyyyyy duck, psy..." the pokemon whined. It wasn't working.   
"Hurry up misty!" Ash yelled back to her. She looked up and saw that he was recalling a feinted Noctowl. That was it for Ash's pokeomon; that Houndoom he was fighting was good. Wait. There was only one Houndoom there.  
"Ash!" Misty yelled in alarm as she frantically looked around for any signs of a sneak attack. "Did you beat those other houndoom?"  
"No, why-dwaaa!!! Where'd they go?"  
"I don't know," Misty stuttered, calling out Staru to fight the one dog pokemon. "Maybe they're going to sneak up on us!" she whimpered, and continued to beat psyduck, hoping for a psychic miracle.  
"No, I'll bet they just were too scared to challenge a great trainer like me!" Ash said proudly, striking a pose.  
"WHAT, YOU?" Misty yelled. Sure he had some skill as a trainer, but over all, he was a total luck machine. "ASH, ALL YOUR POKEMON ARE FEINTED! YES! RUN FROM ASH! THE GREAT TRAINER OF MOTIONLESS POKEMON!"   
"Hey, are you making fun of me?"  
"Yes I-oh, no! Staru!" she cried as her starfish feinted. That had been her last pokemon-not including psyduck. "And this dumb duck isn't getting a headache! What are we gonna do?"  
Ash scratched his head. "Now ordinarily I'd say all pokemon are peaceful and we could be friends, but this isn't an ordinary situation." He said.   
"THAT DOESN'T HELP!!!!" Misty screamed. This was no time to be stating the obvious. They had to do something. The houndoom started to walk slowly towards them. It's teeth were bared and embers came from it's mouth. It walked at a slowbro's pace, as if dragging their inevitable demise into slow torture.  
They had no battle-ready pokemon to use, unless... "Togapi, I choose you!" Misty called.  
"Wha--? Misty, are you sure that's a good idea?" Ash asked.  
"I don't know, but maybe it'll work." She sighed and picked up the egg, "Come on Togapi, we really need you to use your metronome!"   
"What?" Asked a surprised Ash.  
"Cho-ki?"  
"I know I saw Togapi do an attack that looked like metranome on Pinkin Island, and I know it knows Charm, but I think it knows metranome too. Try it togapi." Misty pleaded.  
The houndoom was closer now, and gave a great howl that got Togapi's attention. The egg pokemon smiled at the houndoom, and lifted up its arms, and began to move them back and forth.  
"Cho-ki Cho-ki Cho-ki..."  
"Ash!," Misty cried as a blue aurora began to emit from togapi's paws. "I think it's working!"  
"Cho-ki Cho-ki Cho-ki..."  
The houndoom eyed togapi, trying to figure out what it was doing.  
"Cho-ki Cho-ki Cho-ki......BRIIIIII!!!!!!!!" the egg spread its arms in a give-me-a-hug fashion as everything exploded.  
  
  
"What was that?" James yelled as he heard the sound of an explosion above his head. He, Pikachu, the Houndoom, and Jessie's pokemon all looked up and James gasped. The twerps and a Houndoom (not to mention all the rocks that made up what had been the top of the cliff) were falling down towards him. That wasn't good.  
  
"I never thought we'd be the ones to blast off!" Ash yelled as they fell, but Misty didn't hear. She was too busy strangling the life out of her duck pokemon. (A.N. all anime characters fall very slowly when it is necessary, basic rule of animation)   
"PSYDUCK! DO SOMETHING!!!!" Misty yelled. It didn't understand.  
"Psy..."  
"PSYDUCK! YOU HAVE TO SAVE US!" she yelled, giving it one last swat.  
"Psyyyy..." the pokemon's eyes started to glow.  
  
James had now been waiting for the rocks and twerps to fall on top of him for several seconds longer then it should take to fall. His eyes had been shut and he had been bent protectively over Jessie, however he mustered up the courage to look up to see what was taking the strange avalanche so long to hit.   
He stared up and, "AAAAGGHHH!!!!"  
  
The screaming was mutual from both parties as neither expected what had happened. Psyduck, in a rare case of doing something right, had used it's psychic power to stop it's group from hitting the ground, and the party was now hovering in a blue aurora, just a few inches away from James's nose as he had lifted his head.  
"You mean we were above Team Rocket?" Ash asked, although the answer was obvious.  
"I would ordinarily say this was strange, but I've had a long day..." James muttered.  
"Psyduck! You saved us!" Misty yelled, he eyes growing watery as she hugged the duck. "Now can you get us down, and get rid of that Houndoom!" She shouted, pointing at the dog, who was quite displeased to be hovering in midair.  
"And while you're at it, get that other houndoom away from us!" James yelled, pointing to where the dark pokemon he had been battling was standing.  
"What other Houndoom?" Ash asked, he sat Indian style with his arms crossed, which looked pretty weird when floating in midair.  
James looked around. "What happened to it? It was right there!"  
"Hey, Ash!" Misty cried. "That's exactly what happened to us! The other Houndoom disappeared."  
"Yeah," Ash agreed. "I wonder why this one's still here," he said, turning to face the black dog that had fallen with him and Misty.  
Psyduck had by now lost it's concentration and the group fell down to the ground with a bang. James had barely managed to get Jessie out of harm's way as a red-head-twerp fell where she had been laying, and Ash just barely missed hitting his pikachu as he dropped.  
The Houndoom fell too, but it gracefully handed on all four paws. The dog waited until the humans had stopped rubbing their sore rear ends and had returned their attention to the battle once more. Then the dark pokemon started to glow a hot white.  
  
Ash could hardly believe his eyes, and his horrible luck. This unbeatable pokemon was going to make thing worse and more painful by evolving! Wait, did Houndoom evolve? Wasn't it a final evolution? He pulled out his pokedex to check.  
"Houndoom- the evolved form of Houndour..."   
"Yeah, but what's it doing?" he yelled at the red mechanism in his palm.  
"No data- the pokemon Houndoom has no known evolution. The pokemon houndoom has no known attack that fits scans." Well that was just great.  
The glowing dog seemed to be evolving, but not entirely. It sprouted bat like wings, that were black in color. With it's horns, pointed tail, and new wings, it looked truly evil. "Wha- wha- WHAT IS THAT THING!?!" Misty shrieked, jumping behind Ash who pointed Dexter at the new species.  
"No Data. There is no information on this pokemon."  
"So far my day started out bad, then it got really bad, then it got miserable, then even worse, but now it has just moved on to the point that I would rather be blasted off ten times then be here!" James whined, attempting to fear hug his unconscious partner.   
"Well, well, well..." the familiar voice echoed, and everyone knew what the houndoom was. The dog, Kagami, continued. "Do you like my new form? I can be whatever I want in a dream world."  
Ash gritted his teeth, "So it was you all along? Is this what kind of pokemon you are?"  
The dog shook it's head with attitude. "No!" Kagami spat, "I am a legendary pokemon, and I have no form."  
"No form? Does that mean you're a gaseous pokemon like Ghastly?" Misty inquired from behind Ash's backpack.  
"No." Kagami answered. "Billions of years ago, when pokemon first came to earth, they were nothing but pure mind energy. However, they had the ability to take on forms. Each separate mind energy took on the form of a pokemon, however I was smarter than all those others. They didn't realize how much having a body limited them, but I did, so I never took on a physical form of my own, I just used other's bodies when I needed to. I was above everything else! Those pitiful pokemon were associating with humans as 'friends'. They didn't see, like I did, that humans were such primitive creatures!"  
"Hey! We're not primitive!" Ash shouted angrily.   
"Oh? You waste your time with emotions! Those are strange things, only two of them are useful. Fear and Loneliness, those are the only useful emotions. They are perfect for determining personalities and manipulation. I don't see why you humans waste your time with such things such as friendship and love. They serve no purpose! But you are too stupid to realize that; to primitive..."  
Ash felt his blood boil and was about to yell some more when someone else beat him to it.  
"WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT EMOTIONS!?" James yelled. It seemed that in his rage, he had forgotten about his extreme fear of Kagami. "You don't know anything about what you are saying! You don't have any friends, and you've got nothing to love, you don't understand how important it is!"  
Somehow, though a dog, Kagami managed to sneer. "Important? Things like that cloud the mind, and put off your priorities."  
"My friends are my first priority!" James yelled back.   
"Ah, but your mind is off course. You can't concentrate whenever your mind is on that woman. She brings you pain, I can sense it. I know your mind." Kagami said, her voice eerie and calm.  
To Ash's surprise, James merely smiled. "Then Jessie was right. You DO know about the mind....but...you know nothing about the heart. Because if you did, you would know that sometimes you can love someone so much, it hurts."  
Ash heard a gasp from behind him, and turned to see a blushing and stary-eyed Misty. "Hey, Misty, what's wrong?"  
She gave a long sigh and continued to stare in the direction of James and Kagami. "Nothing's wrong at all! That's the sweetest thing I ever heard!" she said, clasping her hands together.  
Ash was confused. "What is?" and right after he said that he had to make a quick dodge from her mallet.   
"You insensitive jerk! I can't believe you don't get it!"  
"Get Whaaaaat, Misty?" he heard himself whine, despite his best attempts not to look stupid.  
"James is in love with Jessie!"  
"Really?" Ash scratched the back of his head, "I thought he just said love hurts." Misty swung at him again, and this time hit him outside the head. "I rest my case."  
"Did you say something, Ash?"  
Now growing conscious of what he had said, Ash tried to make a quick recovery. "Nope! Nothing at all!" he smiled.   
Misty shrugged, and went back into 'hopeless romantic mode'. That had been a close one.  
"This...love issue," Kagami continued, "Why do you humans obsess over it? It only distracts you from more productive matters."  
"Hmph!" Misty huffed from behind Ash. "What's more important that love?"  
"Uh...Pokemon training?" Ash tried. *whack* again with the mallet.  
  
  
  
"I....don't think.....I can run......anymore," Kakumei panted. She stopped and grabbed a pokeball from her belt. "Ok, I think we've tired out those houndoom   
enough. Let's battle! Ready Meowth?" the cat type jumped from her shoulder.  
"Yeah I guess, but Meowth don't like dog pokemon," he stated in a shaky voice.   
"Oh suck it up, I choose you butterfree!" Kakumei threw the ball and the butterfly came out, but it hadn't regained its strength from the ;ast battle and couldn't even fly. Still, it was ready to defend it's master.   
"Uh...one question," Meowth said as he looked around.   
"What?"  
"Where are the Houndoom?"  
"Uhhh......" Kakumei looked around her for the first time in a while. There wasn't a pokemon in sight. Meowth, who was used to being ambushed, instinctively put his back to Kakumei so they could see from both directions.   
"Dey could be anywhere..."  
"Get ready butterfree..." suddenly there was a rustling sound in the bushed to the right. "Over there!" Kakumei whispered to Meowth. The sound was coming closer and closer until a shadowed figure emerged. Kakumei couldn't see what it was. Maybe it was a really big houndoom. She opened her mouth to give butterfree an order, but the figure rushed at her...  
  
  
  
James was sure he had gone crazy. Yep. He had definitely flipped out. But if you're going to dig your own grave, dig it well; or however the saying goes. "And another thing!" he yelled at the progressively-getting-angrier-angrier-Kagami, "What was that thing you were ranting about before? About your destiny and all that junk?"   
He was a dead man. He had no idea why he was aggravating someone who could kill him in an instant---wait. Could she really kill him? No. Not her, but those illusions of hers could. James shuddered at the thought of being eaten alive by houndoom.   
"Yes, I remember that conversation," Kagami said slowly. "You never did answer my question."  
"Uhh..." James scratched the back of his head. "What was the question again?" The twerps fell down and it looked like Kagami almost did too. That was embarrassing. James found himself wishing that Jessie would wake up and call him an idiot for not remembering."  
"I wanted to know," she started out. Then Kagami glowed with that white aurora again and so did Jessie. In a flash of light, Jessie was ripped from James's grasp and placed at the feet of the dog. James stared with his mouth open and blood boiling. "How is it possible that you have a part of her soul in yours and she still lives."  
"I-I don't know, maybe you should wake her up and ask," James stuttered.   
"I can't sense her mind energy," the dog looked like it was concentrating deeply. "Oh so you're still there?" Kagami said, and she didn't seem to be talking to any of them. "Hikaru, so that's where you've been hiding her. I'll admit that it was a good strategy, but I'm far smarter than that. Well then I'll just finish the hunt and we can have our little game."   
Bending down again, and stepping over Jessie, the mutated houndoom glared at James with embers in its mouth. "I always win, let that be the last thing you remember." James was too petrified to run. He couldn't even close his eyes as he watched the pokemon gather the flames into its jaw, ready to spit them out at him. He could faintly hear the twerps yelling for him to get out of the way but their voices were drowned out by his thoughts.   
He was going to die without telling Jessie how he felt. He had failed her. He had promised to get her out and he couldn't.   
James was about to curse at himself but suddenly Kagami bolted up in shock and pain. The flames flew into the air, harmlessly. The houndoom roared in pain and tried to cover its ears with its giant paws. Behind him, James could hear Pikachu and Togapi and Psyduck screaming in pain as well, and covering their ears. He couldn't hear a thing. "What's going on?" he shouted. But then remembered Jessie. He bolted up and grabbed her, this time he was determined not to fail; he refused to break his promise.   
"Hey! Over here!" James heard a high-pitched voice shouting from not too far off.   
"Is everyone ok?" another voice called from the same direction.  
"Kakumei! And, BROCK!?" Ash called as the two came running down the hill. Kakumei was carrying Meowth, who was desperately covering its ears. Above them was Zubat who, James guessed, was using supersonic to get Kagami. It was too high for humans to hear but it was causing the pokemon great distress. Unfortunately if it stopped supersonic, Kagami would be able to fight again, so pikachu, meowth, and the others would have to endure the pain for the time being.  
"Brock, when did you get here?" Misty asked, but then returned to comforting togapi.   
"Well you see..." Brock started.  
"The little freak scared me half to death!" Kakumei shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Brock.  
  
~* flashback *~  
"Get ready butterfree..." suddenly there was a rustling sound in the bushed to the right. "Over there!" Kakumei whispered to Meowth. The sound was coming closer and closer until a shadowed figure emerged. Kakumei couldn't see what it was. Maybe it was a really big houndoom. She opened her mouth to give butterfree an order, but the figure rushed at her...  
"Oh Kakumei! Thank goodness I found you! I was so worried about a beautiful girl like you running around all alone without protection on a night like this! But I'm here to save you! How about a thank you kiss?" Brock cried as he grasped her hands.  
"B-Brock?" she stuttered. "When did you get here?"   
"Hmm.... Good question. I was having a great time, but then I wondered where you and the others were and then I was here!"  
"Well dis ain't no time to be talkin', we gotta find da others!" Meowth cried from Kakumei's feet.  
"Right." The two humans said in unison and they were off.  
~*end flashback*~   
  
  
"Well I didn't know that houndoom were after you; I didn't mean to sneak up, sorry," Brock managed to get out. Kakumei crossed her arms and sharply let out her breath.  
"AAGGGHH!!!!" there was a scream of pain from the houndoom and it glowed white again. In only a second, Kagami was in the form of the familiar bule-haired figure. Zubat's attack was no longer affective.  
"That," said Kagami, rubbing her temples and glaring at them with malevolence set in her inhuman eyes, "was an excellent try, I'll give you that. But, it was not enough."  
"Hey," Kakumei whispered and James noticed for the first time he was onlyabout 2 feet from Ash and the others. "that supersonic attack actually hurt her."  
"So?" Ash asked in his usual ignorance.   
"So, if we attack her, then we can stop this!" Kakmuei hissed.  
"What, you mean kill her?" Ash asked, startled. But Kakumei had no time to answer.   
"Time to finish you off!" Kagami announced, lifting up her hands as a blue aurora surrounded her and her eyes glow crimson.   
"She reminds me of Sabrina's doll," Misty shakily whispered. James wondered what she was talking about for a second, but then resumed mentally panicking while physically trying to look brave.  
"It looks like dats her default body," Meowth stated as Kagami powered up. "Maybe she's running low on energy, and couldn't zap herself into a big powerful body ta destroy us wid."   
"Then she's weak!" Kagami exclaimed. "We have to get her now, this is our only chance!"  
"No!" Ash yelled, blocking Kakumei's path. "We can't kill her! No matter how bad she is, it's wrong!"  
Kakumei looked slightly annoyed and bent down to Ash's eye level, glaring menacingly. "Ok, fine." She hissed. "Then if she's a pokemon well put her in a pokeball for all I care as long as we stop her!"   
"This hunt is over," Kagami yelled. She turned to James who tried very, very hard to look brave. "You will be my new favorite trophy," she smiled.  
James eyes bugged open, "We're all gonna die!"  
Suddenly Misty whacked him over the head. "Come on James, we don't have time for this. Help us beat her!"  
"Yeah, Meowth don't wanna hafta hear ya winin all da time," Mewoth yelled. "Where's dat Moltres James spirit?"  
Kakumei leaned over and whispered to Brock, "Moltres James?"  
"You don't want to know."  
By now Kagami was fully powered up. Her arms were held high and the blue light seemed to be concentrated in her hands.  
"B-b-but I didn't think she could hurt us herself! I thought only her hallucinations could-" James began, but Kakuemi cut him off.  
"She can force an overload of psychic energy into our minds, that would kill us, or make us crazy." Doctors. Couldn't they ever have any good news?  
Every time something happened, James couldn't remember ever being more scared, but then something else would happen and it would start all over again. He hadn't forgotten his promise to save Jessie, but James had come to the conclusion that being brave and fighting off Kagami was not the best way to do that. Instead, his best option seemed to be what he was best at. Retreat.  
"I'm getting out of here!" he announced, grabbing his partner and running as fast as he could.   
"Good idea!" he heard the twerp say, and soon they were all running.   
He heard the tapping sound of feet as Kakumei jogged up beside him. "Pardon me but how can we run from someone who's attacking our minds?" she asked. It was just her way of saying that running was useless.   
A moment later Misty fell to the ground. "What's wrong, Misty?" Ash asked earnestly.   
"It's my head. I have such a headache!" she whimpred.  
"Me too," Brock agreed, holding his head.  
"Just don't...agghh," Kakumei winced and rubbed her temples, "just don't think about it."  
"Yeah! Just focus on something else," Ash said, urging them onward while his rodent pokemon offered encouraging pika-pis. But James's head was starting to hurt as well.  
He looked back at Kagami. She was standing, quite casually in her blue aurora that illuminated her as if it were merely bright moonlight shining on her body. She smiled at him, quite sweetly, and although she was a good distance away, he could hear her soft voice, "Will you tell me what I want to know?"  
The pain intensifying, and with the children around, him now screaming in agony, James could only cry out "Fine, just stop it!"  
The pain was gone, but the light around Kagami didn't fade-a sign that she was ready to resume her attack at any moment. "Now," she said calmly, eerily soft in her voice, "How do you possess a portion of her soul?"   
"I don't know how, and I didn't know I did!" James told her.  
"Liar," she spat as the pain in his head resumed.  
"You can read my mind, you know it's the truth!" he yelled back, holding his head in his hands.  
"You're wrong, you DO know," she sounded eccentric, but deadly serious. "You must know because part of your soul is in her!" she pointed at Jessie. "Now I ask you again, how is this trade possible?"  
James's mind was racing for an answer, but what in the world did she mean by that soul trade stuff? "I- I don't know." The pain immediately grew worse.   
  
  
"Grrr.... What's taking them so long!?" Jessie shouted in frustration. They had done it plenty of times before, how hard was it for James and the others to get out of the crystal they were in now?  
"I don't know, maybe the illusions have gotten to them," Hikaru said forlornly.   
"Hey!" Jessie snapped back in response. "James and Meowth may be idiots for a good percent of the time, but they're at LEAST smart enough to know that by know they can't believe what they see." That gave Jessie another thought. "Which reminds me. How do I know that you're not just another illusion?"  
Hikaru opened her mouth but another voice answered, "I assure you, she's not." Jessie spun around to look at the new figure. Well it really wasn't a new figure at all. It was all too familiar by now.  
"Kagami," Jessie muttered.  
"No! That's the other one I talked to you about!" Hikaru shouted, pointing at the blue haired figure that mirrored her own. "That's Sabishii, the embodiment of loneliness."  
Sabishii smiled smugly. "Correct."  
"And you were the one in the garden?" Jessie asked. The girl nodded. "Then why help me find James? I thought that loneliness is supposed to make you feel worse, not better."  
"A common misconception," Sabishii answered. "I can do both. I am you enemy and your ally."  
Jessie raised an eyebrow. "Huh? What does she mean by that?"   
Hikaru crossed her arms. "Don't ask me, she's been throwing out riddles for years."  
"Yes," Sabishii spoke, "and I'm tired of you thick headed humans not understanding. But..." she raised a small hand and pointed at Jessie. "You understand, you figured out Kagami's weakness. On the mountain."  
"I...did...?" Jessie worded, slowly. She tried to remember what had happened on her way up to the top of the peak. That voice-Kagami-had been urging her up the peak, and she was powerless to resist. Kagami had been using every weakness that was in Jessie's mind to get her to obey, but there was something that Kagami hadn't been able to touch. Something that kept her at least a fraction of the way in control. Kagami had read all her emotions, but she had only understood a few. She had been able to control what Jessie ~thought~ but she couldn't reach what she had ~felt~. "THAT'S IT!"  
Sabishii smiled, not warmly, but at least genuinely. "You understand now?" Jessie nodded. "Good."  
"WELL THEN ONE OF YOU PLEASE EXPLAIN IT TO ME!!" Hikaru yelled, her tiny hands clenched into fists in frustration.  
"No time," Sabishii replied. Then she turned to Jessie. "The reason you group is taking so long is because Kagami has stopped playing trivial games. The hunt is on; they are in danger."  
"What is going ON here?" Hikaru puffed steam.   
Jessie sighed, "I'd better get over there then."  
"But the plan--" Hikaru started, but Jessie cut her off.  
"Forget the plan," she snapped. "Team Rocket may be villains, but we DO stick together as a team."  
  
  
"I-I don't think I can take much more of this," James gasped as he fell to the ground. Kakumei agreed with him; she felt like her brain was on fire!  
"Well I was originally going to spare you humans, but you just keep escaping. And although it's been an...interesting experience," Kagami said, "I don't have time to play with the likes of you anymore."   
The aurora around her grew brighter and Misty and Brock collapsed. Pikachu, Meowth, and Togapi were grounded as well. It was just Kakumei, Ash, and Kagami. Not very good odds at all.   
"Well now," Kagami smirked, her eyes focusing on Ash. "You're a strong one; I've read your mind. You fought against telekinesis before, but my power is different. You'll find that you can't resist."  
"I'm not as weak," Ash groaned, "as you think I am!" he spat out, crawling on his hands and knees towards Kagami.   
'That idiot!' Kakumei thought, knowing that even though they already didn't stand a chance, Ash was making things worse. But what could she do?  
~~~~"Kakumei...if I start seeing things, you'll still try to help us right? Even if you're the only one left?"~~~~   
He had asked her that, but she had never answered. She never thought she could do it alone, but that kid...all of them, they were so brave. Sure, James screamed like a girl every time he saw Kagami, and Misty jumped at the sight of a weedle, but they were here-fighting for something they believed in, despite their fears.   
And what had she done? Nothing. For years, she had watched people suffer the hallucinations and did nothing. Sure, she had tried her best to get them off the island, but she never tried to get to the source of the problem. She was just too afraid. Afraid that the "force on the mountain" would kill her like her father was killed. But he wasn't dead! Just sleeping, and she could help now! She could be brave this time!   
Ash groaned as he fell on the ground, unable to continue; barely enough strength to hold his aching head. And Kakumei was all alone in this fight.   
She hadn't faught before because she was afraid, and being alone made it worse. ~~~~"You'll still try to help us right?"~~~~ Yes. She could try. No promises of success, but she could try.   
  
  
It hurt. A LOT. James managed to open his eyes and look around. Jessie was still safe, about five or so feet away from where he lay and expected to die soon enough. He would die without telling her, but maybe that was best. If Jessie were to wake up right now and he were to tell her, he would still die soon enough. That would leave Jessie with guilt and maybe sadness depending on weather or not she reciprocated his feelings. He didn't want to hurt her. Better he leave her with happy memories, rather than a horrible tangle of emotions.   
His vision was blurring, but he was able to see Kakumei, struggling to stand. He could see the light growing brighter, and her the doctor's scream as she fell back down to the ground, and tried to get up again. She was more persistent than the twerp!   
James wanted to get up and help, but by now Kagami had control of his motor functions, and was pinning him to the ground. All he could do was stare in shock as Kakumei up again, screamed, held her head, and charged at Kagami in blind agony-like a bull being killed, but still fighting the matador. James could only reason that the pain had made her insane, poor kid.   
A good six feet before she reached Kagami, a blue aurora formed around Kakumei and she was lifted into the air from Kagami's telekinetic powers. James shut his eyes, not wanting to watch for Kagami was now using her psychic power to hurl Kakumei straight into a rock. She was sailing through the air, screaming in pain and fear, but James didn't hear the crash.   
Finally mustering up the courage to open his eyes, James did so. And to his great surprise, his vision was back to normal! The pain was still there, but not as bad as before, and James sat up and looked around to find out what had happened. Something had obviously distracted Kagami, and he gasped in astonishment and happiness when he saw what.  
Kagami was standing, looking very annoyed, and glaring daggers at two the two girls about nine feet from her. One of them was Kakumei. She was kneeling, sort of, on the ground, and looking quite disheveled and dazed. The other girl gripped Kakumei under her arm and tried to hold her up. The other girl was Jessie.  
"Well look who's awake," Kagami said. I had been saving my power for you, girl. I'll have a new form in no time at all."  
"Oh yeah right," Jessie laughed haughtily. "Do you think I'm just going to give up a body this perfect?" she struck a pose, letting go of Kakumei in the process.  
"You will when you have a little taste of what I've been putting your friends through," Kagami replied, full of confidence.   
"Jess, she's gonna melt you brain! You have to get out of here!" James called, his voice panicked.  
"Actually," Kakumei corrected him from the ground, "She is sending an overload of psychic energy into the part of the brain that controls your motor functions and nervous system."  
"That's correct," Kagami smiled. "Prepare to surrender." The blue light flared up, brighter than ever and surrounded Jessie. James felt the pain lift from his mind and he could see the twerps waking up and watching, for they knew there was nothing they could do. Kagami had transferred all her power into fighting Jessie. But what could he do? She would be killed! She would have her body taken over! She would...just stand there?  
James blinked and looked again. Jessie, expected to be on the ground, screaming in agony, was standing still. Her arms were crossed and her eyes focused upward. She looked very bored.  
"Hmmm...I believe that's the Big Dipper," she said, diverting her eyes to the stars. "And there's Orion, and the North Star, and hey! Those stars connect to look like a Wooper! And there's Virgo, and..."  
She kept on going, now laying on her back and pointing at each star. Completely ignoring Kagami, who was looking both confused, angry, and annoyed all at once. Everyone else was just confused, and most of the party sported large sweat beads on their heads.  
Irritated, Kagami jerked her head upwards, and immediately storm clouds started to cover up the stars, interrupting Jessie's star speech. That didn't shake her though, she just shrugged, not noticing the increasing blue aurora what was designed to bring her pain. Instead, she still looked at the sky. "Oh my, it looks like a storm is coming. Look at that lightening! I remember when I was a little girl and I was afraid of lightening, and then I got over it. But now I'm scared of it all over again, but not in the sky, from that pikachu over there. My mother had this big desk that I used to hide under whenever there was a storm..." she just kept on going and going and going and going...  
"Hey, Kakumei," James whispered to the girl who had crawled over near by.   
"What?" she answered, nursing her sore arm that had gotten hit bad in the fight.  
"Did Kagami actually make Jessie go crazy?" he asked her, worriedly.  
Kakmumei looked and listened to Jessie for a moment before turning back to James. "So...she's not usually like this?"  
"NO!" James growled. Jessie was talkative, sure, but not like this. She didn't talk about irreverent things, at least not during a time of crisis.   
"Ya know," Misty said, sitting up and watching a frustrated Kagami try to attack Jessie, who didn't seem to notice. "She kind of reminds me of my sisters. Talkative, but talking about the stupidest things."  
Jessie continued speaking with the occasional arm motion, "And then when I was about fifteen I remember watching Blane being declared an official gym leader. Hey! That reminds me of this joke I heard that was really funny! Ok, three gym leaders walk into a pokemon center..."  
"She actually snapped!" Meowth gaped. "Da poor girl's lost it!"  
"Definitely like my sisters," Misty muttered. "Always talking about the most unimportant things, mostly their swimming. I've seen them do some nasty belly flops, but they didn't seem to feel anything. I suppose that's because they're so ditzy, it's like their brains are numb!"  
Brock and Kakumei turned and stared at Misty. "Misty, that's it!" Brock said happily.  
"What's it, Brock?" Ash inquired.  
"Yeah, what did I say?" Misty asked.  
Kakumei pointed at Jessie. "Look at what she's doing! It's like her brain has gone numb, she can't feel any of the attacks!"  
"I don't get it," James muttered, listing to Jessie rambling on about why she preferred white Team Rocket Uniforms over black ones.   
"Look," Brock said. He held up a finger while he explained, which actually seemed to make him look smarter. "Kagami's power deals with the mind, I don't think she really hurt us at all. She was just making us think we were in pain, that was the power she was using!"  
"Ooh! I get it!" Ash exclaimed. "So Jessie makes her mind all blank and there's nothing for Kagami to hang on to!"  
"So, if we clear our minds, then Kagami can't get us?" James asked, making sure he understood. He was stunned a bit, but glad that Jessie wasn't crazy.  
"Yeah," Meowth confirmed. "It should be easy for you; it's not as if you have much of a mind anyway."  
"Hey..."   
"Well, let's give it a try!" Kakumei urged.  
"Right," everyone nodded.  
"Pika!"  
"Cho-ki cho-ki, briiiiiiii!"  
  
  
Jessie had tried to clear her mind of anything relevant. A small portion of her wandered whether or not the others had caught on, but she quickly dismissed the thought so that Kagami couldn't get the upper hand. She opened her mouth and started babbling again. "And while I was at the beach, I saw this idiot trying to count the grains of sand! And so I told him..."  
Soon her voice was joined by others, as Team Rocket and team twerp started following her lead.   
"Hey! Have you ever noticed those bushes that are pruned to look like things?" Brock announced to absolutely nobody, as Kagami tried to blast him away to no avail. "Well I saw this great pokemon shaped bush, it was a pikachu bush. But look at all these bushes right here! That bush looks like a pretty girl, and so does that one, and that one..."  
"Look everyone! I can make myself dizzy!" Misty cried, spinning around.  
"I'm going to be a pokemon master!" Ash was giddily lining up his badges on the ground in front of him. "I'm gonna count my badges. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14. 14! That's a lot! I'm gonna count them again! 1,2,3,4,5..."  
Kakumei, meanwhile, could have looked like she was doing something important. She was hunched over, gathering dirt samples in test tubes. She looked in deep thought, until she opened her mouth. "This is very good dirt! Yes folks, I have studied it, and I have confirmed it is dirt! I'm going to forget about pokemon science and study dirt! It's just so interesting! I'm going to go see all the different kinds of dirt in the world! I'll collect samples of them all! I'll be the world's greatest dirt collector!"  
Kagami's blasts were now aimed at everyone, but nothing was happening!  
"You know there are over a hundred uses for bottle-caps," James was saying. "They go on top of bottles, the can be collected, they..."  
Even the pokemon were playing along. Pikachu was chasing it's tail, Meowth was rolling around on the grass with a ball of yarn saying "Yarn is good" over and over, and Togapi was being it's usual chipper, but vacant self.  
And it all, literally, fell to pieces. The color drained out of the scenery, and everything grew gray and translucent. With a bright flash, the crystal shattered, and they were back in the large, cavern hallway.   
"It worked!" Jessie cried happily.   
"Thank goodness," Ash said, his arms crossed. "I was tired of acting like an air head."  
"You were acting?" Misty asked in mock surprise.  
"Oh be quiet!"  
"YOU be quiet you pokemon master wannabe!"  
Brock sighed and muttered. "Things are starting to get back to normal already."  
"Hmmm..." Jessie stated. "The way they fight, they must really have it bad for each other."  
"Yup," Kakumei nodded, "The saying goes 'you hurt the ones you love' or something."  
Meowth squinted at the twerps who had taken no notice of their audience. "Is that so?" he asked. "Because Meowth was just thinkin' dey fight like Jessie and James, so does that mea-oof!"  
Meowth had soon found both Jessie's boot and James's pounding him into the ground. "What are you implying?" they hissed in unison.  
"Hey! Stop hitting Meowth!" the cat yelped.   
  
"Such barbaric creatures," the unmistakable voice muttered. Kagami was sprawled over the top of the faintly glowing rock crystal in the center of the room. She looked pretty tired, but she stood up, and glared down at them.  
"Inferior beasts..." she muttered. "How could I loose to those primates? I NEVER loose!"  
Kakumei watched and looked uneasy. Team Rocket was watching Ash and Misty fight, and betting on the results.   
"I bet ya that Misty beats king twerp and wins the fight," Jessie said.   
James, who was eating some popcorn that had mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, said "Well I think the older Twerp will stop them."  
"Meowth thinks dat Pikachu'll shoch 'em" the cat placed his bid.  
"GUYS!!!" Kakumei yelled. The rest of the group turned to look at her. "In case you all haven't noticed, WE HAVEN'T ESCAPED YET!!!!!"  
"Dat's right!" Everyone stopped what they were doing and in a split second were all facing Kagami once more.   
Jessie was steamed. "All right you little twit," she yelled, "Your gonna pay for involving me in you twisted game."  
"Yeah!" James helped, "And you've lost!"  
"And Team Rocket has finally come out on top!" Meowth added.  
Ash ran in front of the others. "We one your game, now let all the people you kidnapped go!"  
Kagami was very silent. Very still. She looked him in the eye, and nobody moved for what seemed like ages. Then she whispered, as if it were some horrible secret, "I. Never. Loose."   
Everyone either cringed or looked confused. "It's over," Kakmuei managed to say. "You're out of power, and we can beat your illusions." She motioned to the large rock-crystal that glowed off and on with a faint light.   
"I..." Kagami replied softly, her voice sounding more inhuman then ever. "Have all the energy I need." And once more the room was overwhelmed in blue light, not from the centerpiece rock, but from all the other dream pods that lined the walls. Those that held pokemon and human captive in their dream world. Kagami was sucking the energy out of them.  
  
  
James was frozen. "What's happening?" Jessie asked from beside him. He didn't know what to tell her.   
"I told you," Kagami said calmly. There was a pause, then the ground and walls started to shake! "I never loose."  
"It's a cave in!" Brock yelled, causing the rest of the party to scream.   
"But won't you be crushed too?" James yelled at Kagami. She was standing calmly in the midst of the rubble falling around her.   
"Only the body will die, I will remain." James felt his eye twitch, that girl was mental.   
Beside him he thought he heard Jessie whisper a worried "Hikaru..." but he didn't bother thinking about it, for they were going to die.  
"We gotta get out of here!" Misty yelled, picking up Togapi and rushing for the exit. Everyone else followed close behind in a panic.   
They ran, but Kagami-with her large source of power-was too fast. The entrance to the cave crumbled before their eyes before they could reach it.  
Now during an earthquake-although this was not one-the safest place to be is under a doorway, preferably an arch. However, scince all the doors had collapsed, James Decided that the next safest place was hugging Jessie for dear life and screaming like a girl.   
  
  
Misty's head spun. She didn't know what to do. How could they get out this time? She had to admit that she wished she had the guts to 'fear hug' someone, preferably Ash.   
She looked over to see Team Rocket, hugging each other closer then she would have thought possible. Even in the face of death, they were so comfortable with each other. This was one of the rare cases that she was jealous of Jessie-wishing she, herself had someone to hug besides Togapi.   
"I have won!" Kagami announced as the light grew more intense, and the shaking more violent.   
With a final and defiant jolt, the ground beneath them split out. Rocks crashed everywhere around Misty. She found herself hurled into the air, and could see that the shaking had separated everyone. Even Jessie and James had lost their death grips on each other and were 'blasting off' in opposite directions.   
Misty landed on the ground with a hard bang. She opened her eyes half way, and could see black blotches floating everywhere. She was loosing conciseness. Dizzily she pulled Togapi against her to protect it. She could see Ash running somewhere. Towards Kagami! She wanted to yell at him to stop, but she blacked out.  
  
  
**** You're too weak to fight me now. I finally have you. ****  
"What?" Jessie asked. The voice was familiar, but she couldn't see a thing. But it was Kagami's voice.   
**** You were injured in the cave-in, you cannot fight me off this time. ***  
Oh no. Kagami was right. She didn't think she could move. She felt so sleepy... "Where...Where are you?" she demanded. "Where are we both?"  
**** Inside your mind. But... it will soon be MY mind. ****  
  
  
  
Kakumei coughed as she inhaled the air, dusty after the cascade of rocks. She had been lucky. Two large boulders had fallen on her left and right, and had smashed together at the top to make a crude, small, but effective archway that shielded her from the rest of the avalanche.   
Crawling on her stomach, she made her way out. Rocks and dust blocked her view of the rest of the cave. "Is everyone all right?" she yelled. "Anyone survive?" when she received no answer, she got very worried.   
They are probably just unconscious. She kept telling herself that. "Misty! Ash! James! Jessie!" she yelled as she climbed up a large rock, hoping she could see better. "Meowth! Brock! Is anyone there?"  
"Pi...ka..." came the answer. Faint, but distinct.   
The rodent! She had forgotten about him... "PIKACHU!" she yelled. "Keep talkin' Pikachu! I'll follow your voice!"  
She found the mouse after what had seemed like hours of crawling around on her stomach, and climbing over rocks. The rubble had made a sort of maze out of the room, and Pikachu was huddled in the corner of one o the many dead ends.   
"You ok?" she asked the pokemon. It 'pika-ed' in reply. "Good," now lets find the others.   
"Hello?" she yelled, "Can anybody hear me?"  
"Pi-ka-pi!"  
She sighed in defeat. Could they really be dead? NO! They HAD to be out cold or something. Not dead, right?  
"Ka...Ka-ku-mei..." came the barely audible groan of Ash Ketchum. He didn't sound too good.  
"Ash? Ash hold on, I'm coming!" she yelled. There was too much dust in the air for pikachu to sniff out it's master, and he had spoken no more, even when she had called. She made a guess at the general area she had heard the voice from, and started making her way through the rocks.   
  
She found him in a small, tunnel-like thing. He was on all fours, a large, flat rock resting on his back. It looked like his limbs would give out any second! "Ash! Hold on, I'll get that off of you!" she was able to push the rock off of his back, but it landed on it's side, partly leaned against him.   
She was able to prop it up, but just long enough for Ash to grab something from underneath him and roll away. She stopped leaning on the rock and it fell down with a loud crash.   
"Thanks Kakumei, that was close," Ash said. he was panting hard, and didn't look to good.  
"No problem Ash I-IS THAT WHO I THINK IT IS!?!" she yelled. That thing that he had been crouched over, protecting from the rock. That he had grabbed and kept from danger, was the limp body of a little blue haired girl, lying against Ash, eyes closed. "You SAVED her!?!"  
He lent back against a rock and tried to regain his strength. "I- I said that I wouldn't let anybody die... not even her."  
Kakumei stood there speechless for a minute. Why? Why had he done that?. But there wasn't time to think about such things. "Come on, we haveta find the others."  
Ash nodded and picked up the girl, carrying her along as they climbed over the rocks, calling the names of their other party members.  
  
  
  
"There are plenty of other people in your stupid crystals you can possess," Jessie spat out in a last ditch effort to save herself while she still had the strength to talk. "Why me?"  
****That boy," the voice echoed. "He is very interesting.****  
"What do you mean? Which boy?" Jessie asked, annoyed that she had avoided her question.  
****That James," came the reply. "I sensed something when you two arrived, but I didn't know what. IT was particularly in you...****  
Jessie scowled, "What is 'IT'?"  
There came a laugh. A laugh like a giddy, young-but conceited-school girl. ****I don't know. You said yourself that I didn't know anything about feelings. IT was a feeling. An emotion.****  
"An emotion?"  
***Yes, that's right. Your puny mind is finally catching on. An emotion.***   
There was a long pause where Jessie felt her energy take another dive and she fought hard against the drowsiness.   
Then images seemed to flow before her eyes. Pictures of memories that she had hidden, things she had forgotten, faces of the family she hadn't time to know. Kagami was probing her brain.  
**** I have many people still in their sleeping chambers.**** Kagami went on. **** And I had sensed a good variety of emotions from them, but, you have the most complex ~feelings~ as one might say.****  
Feeling her energy sapping out, Jessie tied to stall. "What do you mean by 'complex'?"  
***Anger, girl! You are so angry! And yet, I dig deeper and I find that it's not all anger, but a combination of other feelings, other emotions.****  
"I'm angry at YOU!"  
Feeling she would feint any second, Jessie didn't want to bother with this conversation anymore. "Just answer my question! WHY ME!?!"  
There was the laugh again, before the response. **** Because you are unique.**** that last word seemed to hang in the air for an eternity before Kagami continued. ****Humans bore me, you know. You are fun to play with for a moment, but then the moment is gone and you are worthless. So... imagine my surprise, after being forced to utilize a six year old body, that another person had arrived that would serve as a new and better vessel.****  
"What makes me so unique? So...possessable?" for lack of a better word.   
****I know you have met Hikaru, do you know what happened to her father?***  
"Can't you ever give me a straight answer?"  
****He left home, they used to live on the island, and she was left here stranded.****  
Poor Hikaru. Jessie remained silent.  
****I didn't have a body then, but I could sense something strange about Hikaru after her father had left. So, I used my illusions to summon her here, to me.  
I found that there was a tear in her soul. And through that opening, I could enter and take over.****  
Jessie was stunned. After a long pause, after she mustered up the strength to speak, she said "Well... being lonely is enough to put a tear in a person's soul, but that still doesn't explain--"  
****You? It still doesn't explain you.****  
  
  
"Cho-ki?"  
Something was poking Misty's head. "Cho-ki?" another poke. "BRIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!" THAT woke her up.  
"Ugghhh..." she muttered, rubbing her head. "I'm okay togapi, don't cry." She cradled the egg and looked around.  
There were rocks everywhere, she couldn't see very far. Everywhere were large boulders that would take a lot of climbing. It was thick rock, making it hard to hear in the cavern.   
She stood up. "Come on, Togapi. Let's look for the others." Placing the egg in her backpack, she started to climb a near by boulder.   
As she neared the top, she heard something from below her. "Jessie?" there was a voice.  
"James? Kakumei? Are ya dere?" Meowth called.  
Misty was just glad to find anyone. She had been desperately afraid that she was the only survivor. "Team Rocket!" she called out, "Wait for me!"  
Climbing some more, then making her way round more large rocks, she skidded to a halt in front of the cat.   
"Meowth!" Misty hugged the cat, happy to see someone else.   
"Hey let me go! Crazy twerp, LET ME GO!" he struggled till she dropped him. "Now den, you seen da rest of 'em all?"  
"No," Misty shook her head, worry filling her. "I haven't seen Ash or anybody besides you."  
  
  
"Kakumei? Ash? Misty, pikachu, Team Rocket, where are you?" Brock's voice was heard faintly from the other side of a raock baracade.  
Pikachu's ears perked up. "Pika!"  
"It's Brock!" Ash yelled, happily. "Brock! We're over here!"  
Kakumei, who being in better condition than Ash, was carrying the still demon child. "Stay put Brock!" she yelled. "We'll be right there, just keep yelling so we can find you!"  
"Hurry," came the reply. "You have to see this!"  
  
  
  
  
Managing to find a low point in the boulder wall, Ash, Kakumei, Pikachu and the girl ran over to Brock. He was kneeling in front of a small hole in an area of a collapsed doorway.   
Kakumei watched for a moment and saw a flash of blue light. "What was that?" she asked, the light was from one of Kagami's crystals that was for sure.   
Brock didn't turn around, and Ash bent down and peered into the hole. "WAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!!" he suddenly screamed as the light flashed again. "Kakumei look!"  
She did, and gasped. It appeared that the hole was all that was left of the doorway to the room with the crystal pods. The pods that the humans were kept in.   
The crystals had fallen every which way, and the people inside them were tossing and turning in their sleep. The pods lit up briefly, and then darkened again, and she saw what was happening. "The pods are loosing power!" she cried, not sure what to think. "Something must have happened to Kagami!" some of the pods emitted a light briefly, like a dying light bulb.   
Ash rushed over to the child's body. "She's just barely alive," he said.  
"That's the body," Kakumei corrected. "She can use her powers outside of the body, she doesn't need it."  
"Well maybe she used too much energy causing that cave in," Brock offered.   
"Maybe so..." she drifted off, staring at the crystals. If she was correct, they were loosing stability. The dreamers would awake soon...  
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud, panting, and somewhat panicked voice. "Hey Doc.," Meowth panted, he was on top of the rock wall they had passed. "Me an da twerp girl found Jess and Jim, but Jess is in bad shape. Ya gotta take a look at her!"  
Kakumei stood up. "Coming," she called back, then turned back to Ash and Brock. "See what you can do about widening that hole. We should get those people out of there."  
"Wait!" Ash called, before she could go very far. He picked up Kagami's form. "I'm coming too."  
Kakumei turned back to Brock. "Don't worry," he said, and held up a pokeball. "Onix will make a doorway in no time at all."  
She nodded and followed Meowth, with Ash taking up the rear.  
  
  
  
"Are they here yet?" James asked for the 18th time in the past five minutes (Misty had been keeping track).   
"No!" she yelled back, annoyed. "I'll tell you when they get here so in the mean time just be quiet!" James shrunk back and was silent. Misty exhaled sharply, and turned back to keeping watch.  
She was sitting on top of one of the many rock walls the cave in had made, and she was looking in all directions for any sign of Meowth bringing back her friends. About 15 feet below her in a ditch was James, carefully monitoring an injured Jessie.   
It was strange. She didn't look all that badly injured. She was covered in scratched and dirt marks, but so were she and James. Perhaps she had hit her head hard, or maybe she had internal bleeding, but whatever it was, her pulse was erratic and her breathing unsteady and full of effort. Not a good sign at all. But Team Rocket had survived cave-ins, fire blasts, falling off cliffs, thunder bolts, beedril attacks, and being blasted off sky high on a weekly basis! Something strange was going on; a simple cave in shouldn't stop Jessie of Team Rocket!  
But seeing Jessie in bad shape made Misty even more afraid of what had happened to Ash. Was he still alive? And Brock and Kagami, what about them? Was Meowth taking so long because he couldn't find them? What if they were under piled of rock!? What if they...died...?  
  
  
  
"Come on Jessie!" James shook her. "Wake up!" no use, it didn't work. She usually took a hit pretty well, although he took one better, for James was the one always getting hit. It was so strange that she was out like this...  
Her breath was fairly loud and full of effort. It wasn't as if she was trying hard to breather, it was more like she was running fast and was tired. Perhaps all the time spent under Kagami's control had made her sick.  
He tried again to wake her up, this time using different tactics. "Jessie, wake up and see what the rocks did to your face!" under any other circumstances she would have been up in half a second, but there was no response.   
Her face didn't really look all that bad, just a few dirt smudges and a small scratch on her cheek. Nothing to worry about-unless you were Jessie, then it was the end of the world.  
James was starting to really worry. "Come on, Jessie, you're starting to scare me! Wake up!" he whined, his voice growing high-pitched like it often did when he panicked.   
Still nothing from her. What was going on?  
  
  
  
****Did you know...*** Jessie didn't care. Whatever it was, she didn't care. She just wanted out. ***that a piece of you soul is missing?****  
Ok, maybe she cared just a little.  
"Wha- what?" she got out. "Is that even possible?"  
There was a pause. **** No. It is not possible to live without any part of one's soul. One may live with a tear, that can be mended, but not without a piece missing.****  
Jessie was silent and let that sink in. Finally, she spoke slowly. "So...how am I alive then?"  
**** Trade. ****  
"um... what?"   
**** Trading. The missing piece was replaced by a portion of someone else's soul. ****  
Well then... THAT was sure interesting. "What? How? Who?" Jessie managed do stutter out.  
**** That man, it is his soul that has mended yours however...****  
Jessie was shocked. James. She had to mean James. The one person who could capture her heart, and burrow into her soul no matter how much she fought it. The only one, despite how much she tried not to, that she loved.   
****as for how, THAT is what you are going to tell me****  
Jessie's mind spun so fast, she was sure that not even Kagami could read her thoughts. But if Kagami COULD read minds, then why didn't she know?   
Jessie smiled as she understood. "So..." she said slowly, the confidence finally returning to her voice. "the answer to your question is an emotion itself. THAT is why you don't know. I get it now."  
****Tell me now! What is it? How is this done?****  
Jessie paced herself. She was in control, and that was just how she liked it. "Why is it so important for you to know?"   
**** Because I need to understand you mortals. To figure out this secret of them.****  
Jessie nodded. "Yes, it's like a riddle. And a riddle is like a game. And THIS, is a game you can't win."   
There was silence, but Jessie could feel Kagami's anger hanging in the air. Finally Kagami spoke. ****I. ALWAYS. Win.**** the words rang in Jessie's ears. **** But if you do not comply, then I shall take your body now, and let you suffer.****  
Jessie tossed her head and laughed. "Go ahead and try." She cried.   
"I'm not afraid!"  
  
  
Onix had easily made a doorway big enough for a person to enter, and just in time too. The crystals all glowed in unison, and a high screech filled the air. "What's going on!?" Brock yelled, watching as the pods glowed brightly, and then one by one, shattered.  
  
"Jessie!" James yelped. He held onto her tightly, as if she was being torn away from him. All of a sudden a screeching sound had filled the air, and Jessie had been surrounded with a blue light.   
"What's happening?" Misty yelled from above him on the cliff. She slid down to the ditch next to him. "What's going on?"  
James shook his head. "I don't know."  
  
Kakumei stopped short. Meowth, who had been leading her and the twerp, looked annoyed. "What's wrong? Why'd ya stop?"  
"Look!" she pointed. Straight ahead of them, from behind a tall rock wall, something was shining brightly with a blue aurora.   
"Hey!" Meowth screamed. "Dat's where Jessie and James are!"  
"Then we better hurry," they started to run again, but were stopped by Ash.  
"Kakumei! Meowth! Look!" he called. He was kneeling on the ground, propped up against him was Kagami's body, and it shone in the same blue light.   
  
  
  
The people were starting to wake up. Brock was overthrown with questions. Children screamed for their mothers, adults demanded to know where they were, and all of a sudden the area had become littered with pokemon! The pods with the monsters must have shattered too.  
"Now everybody settle down," Brock shouted desperately, trying to calm the crowd of scared people. "Now were all leaving this cave, so could you all go out that door (the one Onix had made) and wait for the Doctor to make sure everyone is here before we go."  
He genuinely did not know what he was doing, but at least he sounded smart enough for the group to file outward. Brock stood at the doorway until all had passed, and was about to go as well when he noticed that someone was left.  
A middle aged man in a lab coat was frantically looking every which way.   
"Uh, sir, we gotta get a move on here," Brock tried. He went over to the man. "Is anything wrong sir?"  
The man stared at him blankly for a second before speaking. "My...My daughter. I didn't see her, where is she? She's only six, she can't be off alone, where is she?"  
Brock didn't have any idea who any of these people were, but he didn't want to alarm the man so he had to be cautious. "Well, I don't know," he started, "What's your daughter's name?"  
"Kakumei."  
  
  
"Are they reacting to each other?" Ash asked. Kakumei shrugged in response. They had found James, Misty, and Jessie. They now all sat in the ditch, watching the two girls glow in that strange aurora, wondering what was going on and what to do.   
"Mareep!"  
Everyone's head darted up. "What was that?" Misty hissed.   
"Mareep!" came the voice again.  
They all looked up to see a small Mareep standing on the top of the wall looking down at them.  
"Hey," James said, staring at it. "I remember that there were a few Mareep inside those crystals. I guess they woke up."  
Ash stared at the pokemon. It had been inside a crystal pod. He remembered those human pods that had been flickering, as if they were loosing energy... "Aghhh!!!" he yelped as it hit him.  
"What is it, Ash?" Misty asked.  
"Kagami! She was sapping the energy out of the crystals before! She must have taken all the power from every dream pod to get energy! That's why the pokemon are awake!"  
The others stared. "But why would she do that?" James asked.  
"I know why," Kakumei said seriously. She pointed to the child's body and Jessie, still glowing in that strange light. "She needed enough energy to perform the switch. She's moving; from this little girl to Jessie."  
  
  
Jessie felt her strength coming back as she had solved the puzzle. Good. She'd need her strength.   
There was a blast of cold air all around her and opened her eyes to see...something. Before her stood a mass of pure energy--Kagami. Meowth had been right, she was a pokemon.   
It was a white-hot mass of energy and light; what a pokemon was as it evolved. The illumination surrounded her, and she knew what was happening. "Sorry," she grunted. "This body's mine."  
She was dunked inside it, as if it were liquid. It seemed to be everywhere inside her mind and spirit. But no. She wasn't going to let her body be taken from her.   
She floated for a moment, in the white light. And then focused her mind and her heart, and Kagami was torn away from her. Evaporating like mist.  
***How!*** came the voice as the white mass began to disintegrate. **** How did do this?****  
"That 'feeling', that emotion that you couldn't understand. That is the most important emotion of all. It provides a base for every other sensation. It is how any mortal even exists. It ~protects~ us, and it protected me from you." She yelled as the energy dissipated. "I guess I was just the first one to figure it out-that it was your weakness."  
****What*** came the voice. It was faint and full of effort. ****Was this emotion?****  
Jessie smiled. "Love." She answered simply, and the light was gone. The mist-like glow had left, but it wasn't dark. There was a sunny, pleasing quality all around. Kagami was gone for good. "Game over."  
  
  
  
"It...stopped..." Misty said shakily. Jessie and the child had stopped glowing with that strange light, and everything seemed to hand in time for a moment before the blue haired figure stirred.  
Everyone held their breath, not knowing at all what to expect.   
The girl opened her eyes, clear blue in color; not at all like the faded eyes that had been there before. She looked around slowly, taking in each person as she met their gaze. Finally her eyes rested on Jessie, whom James still clutched. "Miss Jessie," she mumbled. Her voice was small and weak, like she hadn't spoken in quite some time. But it was a real voice--a child's voice. Nothing at all like the strange mix of echoing voices it had been before.  
"K-Kagami?" Ash asked cautiously. The girl looked blankly back at him for a moment.  
"No," she said, letting out breath. She looked and sounded sleepy, and her eyes only were opened half way. She didn't seem inclined to say more.   
She didn't have to though, for Jessie was waking up too. James felt her stir in his arms and her eyes opened. "James?" she asked, unsure.  
"Is it Jessie, or Kagami?" Kakumei asked, eying Jessie with uncertainty.   
James only smiled, he had known the moment she had opened her eyes. "It's ok, it's Jess."   
Meowth nodded in confirmation. "You ok? Where'd Kagami go?"  
Jessie shrugged. "Vanished, I don't know for sure," she said, standing up. She turned to the girl. "You ok now, Hikaru?"  
The little girl smiled and leaned back against Ash looking ready to fall asleep. "I'm ok, just a bit worn out," she said. "Kagami used up all my energy."   
"You two know each other?" James yelled/asked.   
"Yeah," Jessie confirmed, "Long story."  
"We're going to have to hear it."  
  
  
It was about noon when they left the cave. It was also two days after they had entered. The rest of the afternoon was pretty busy. Everyone was evacuated off the island and moved to a temporary camp shelter on the mainland shore.  
Many people had arrived to meet up with their "long lost relatives". Some of the people who had been trapped in the dream pods were celebrating, happy to be out and about again without having aged at all. Others, however, were having nervous breakdowns, unable to absorb the fact that it was years later than their last memory.   
And there was of course the emotionally reunion of Kakumei and her father. He had wanted to hear everything that had happened to her, so out of politeness, Ash and company, and team rocket, had been forced to listen to Kakumei ramble about every little detail of the past few years.   
It was nighttime by the time they all had time to discuss what had happened. However Jessie didn't want to join in on the conversation. James had gone off somewhere, and she had to find him. There was something important she needed to find out.  
She had admitted to herself that she loved James. She had for a while, but she had denied it.   
And now, with that knowledge, she just wanted him to be happy. Even if it wasn't with her.  
  
  
James had been sitting on a sand dune that overlooked the sea. The ocean was calm, and the sky was starry. You could just make out Dream-sphere in the distance.  
"So there you are, James!" James almost jumped; Jessie had surprised him. She walked over and sat next to him. She stared at the island of a moment, looking as if, into another life.   
Then she smiled a little and turned back to him. "So..." she said. "Are you going to tell me who she is or must I guess?"  
"Huh?" he managed, not sure of what she meant.   
"I remembered something else from when I was 'reliving my childhood', so to speak," she replied. "You admitted to fife-year-old-me that you loved somebody. Who?"  
James blinked, and stared at her. What was he supposed to say?   
He seriously couldn't believe that she hadn't figured it out. Jessie was sitting there, asking him whom he loved, and it was she! But how in the world was he supposed to get out the words?  
"Wha- what?" oh yes, James. That was excellent. Way to go.  
Jessie repeated the question. "Who do you love?"  
He continued to stare at her. He looked into her eyes. They were shadowed and sort of troubled. Her happy exterior was false; he could see it now. But he could also see that she wasn't just messing with him. She honestly didn't know that he adored her.  
'Deny', he thought. The word echoed in his mind as if it had been spoken. His own voice screamed at him, 'deny it! Say she was tired and hadn't understood you! Deny you ever said anything about love; you're only going to scare her! She's been through enough!'  
And then there was that second voice. The sweet voice that he couldn't say no to, 'Promise me you'll tell her...'   
'Deny!'  
'And that's a PROMISE. You remember that, k?'  
  
  
  
James was sure acting weird. He had stared at her funny, and he seemed confused about something. Then, as if a light bulb had been switched on, Jessie saw James smile. He then started to laugh a little. Not a funny joke kind of laugh, more like a know it all kind of laugh, that somehow came out warmly. He wasn't mocking her, just laughing.   
"What's so funny, James?" she glared at him.  
"Nothing," he still had that warm smile. "I just thought that Jessie, who had actually figured out how to beat Kagami, would have figured out who I love."  
Jessie put her hands on her hips. "Well you are a very confusing person, James. Sometimes I read you like a book, and other time I have no idea what goes on in your head."  
"I wouldn't worry about it," James replied. He put his arms around her shoulders and hugged her. "You'll figure it all out sooner or later."  
He left it at that. He continued to stare out to see, quiet, and letting the breeze rustle his hair. Jessie sat there, half way in his arms, her mind racing-spinning in fact.   
Had he meant...? Was that his way of saying...? It was. "Oh..." she managed to get out, and she knew her cheek had turned red. Not a bad oh, just surprised. So she had been the one all along, how could she not have realized it?   
For a moment she was nervous, unsure of what to do or say. Then she mentally slapped herself. Reality check. Love or not, this was still James. There was absolutely no reason to be nervous around him.  
"Well..." she started off in a serious tone. She saw he looked a bit worried, but then she changed her expression to give him her usual sideways grin. "I would have thought you would be more dramatic about it."  
He smiled with relief. "I'll have you know romantic confessions are very nerve wrecking."  
She laughed, they weren't nervous anymore. Everything fell into place like it always did with them. They were like different parts of the same person.  
As if they shared a soul.  
"Whatever," Jessie stated. She leaned up and kissed him on the lips.   
"Well are you ever going to say it?" Jessie asked, when the kiss had broken.  
He smiled. "I love you Jessica." James said simply, but elegantly.   
Jessie smirked. "It's about time you said it. I love you too."  
  
  
  
  
"So who was that other girl, Sabishii?" Ash asked. Ash, Misty, Brock, Kakumei (and her father), Pikachu, Togapi, and Meowth (nobody knew where Jessie and James had gone off to) were all sitting around the campfire asking Hikaru about the details of their past adventure.  
Hikaru sipped her tea before answering. "Sabishii and Kagami are the same."  
There was a group "WHAT!?!" before Hikaru could continue.  
"It's complicated. Kagami was extremely complicated," she said.   
"Well as a scientist I don't care how complicated it is, I just have to know the answer!" Kakumei yelled. "What exactly is Kagami and what exactly happened and why?"  
Hikaru sipped her tea once more. She took her time in everything. Hikaru was very adult like, although she was truly only six. But she had been through a lot. "Long story, I'll try and sum it up." She said. "Millions of years ago, when pokemon first came to this planet, they were only life energy. Each bit of that energy took on a form, and became the pokemon we know today. Kagami, however, never assumed a form. That was her downfall.   
Being only energy, she was what she felt. She had no company, everyone else had assumed forms and she was forgotten about. She was lonely.   
However, she didn't know what emotions were. She had no idea what she felt or why, much less how to stop it. After a while, she split into two forms.  
Being only energy, Kagami ~became~ what she ~felt~. The lonely part of her became Sabishii. The rest of her became bitter, angry, and that finally turned to hatred. That part became Kagami."  
Hikaru had stopped her story to take another sip of tea. "So," Misty asked, "Why was Kagami abducting all those people?"  
Hikaru set down her tea and spoke again. "Kagami realized that there was some connection to herself and emotions, but she didn't know what. Soon, curiosity became just as much a part of her as hatred. She HAD to know everything. She HAD to know what the connection was between herself and emotions.   
Kagami believed that if she read enough human minds, and took enough forms, and entered enough dreams, that she would understand what emotions were. But she was wrong."  
Everyone was quiet for a bit. Misty had found extreme interest in the bush next to her, and the others were staring into space. "So, how was Kagami defeated, Jessie never told us." Ash finally spoke up.  
"Yeah," Kakumei agreed. "Did she tell you?"  
Hikaru nodded. "Kagami was hatred," she explained. "When confronted with love, hatred cannot last."   
"I dunno," Ash said. "I wouldn't exactly call Jessie a prime example of love."  
"Ya never know," Misty said absently, still starring at the bush.   
There was another silence and then Brock spoke up. "Wait, you mean this whole ordeal happened, because Kagami was...lonely?"  
Hikaru nodded silently.   
Another silence, but this time it was broken by Misty.  
"Ya know," she started. She still stared at the bush. More exactly through the bush. If you looked through the leaves in just the right spot, you had a view of the beach. And on the sand dunes she could see two people. She opened her mouth again to finish her sentence.  
"It just goes to show, we all need somebody."  
  
Fin.  
  
  
DONE!!! DONE!!!! FINALLY IT'S DONE!!!!! ::applause:: ^_^  
  
Ok, now for some quick notes on this. People have been wondering why I used the American names for the main characters, but Japanese names for the supporting roles. Well that's just how it turned out, it was not my original plan heheh.  
Sabishii is Japanese for loneliness, Kakumei means revolution, and Kagami is Japanese for mirror.   
  
Another thing I'll be getting complaints about is the size of this story. Well I know it was kinda long, but there are longer ones, but they are just broken up into smaller chapters ^_^ but the main point is that this is a JAJRN. Jessie and James romance NOVEL. NOVEL as in LONG story ^_~  
  
Oh, and the title for this chapter, the most dangerous game, is actually the name of a short story I read in class about a man who would hunt humans for sport. I thought it fit.  
  
And I know it got pretty dang confusing near the end, so if you have any questions feel free to email me and ask: Jadesfire2@hotmail.com   
  
Now that you went through all the trouble of reading, why don't you review?   
Pleeeeeeease?   



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